SEVEN YEARS' 

STREET PREACHING 

IN 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA; 



EMBRACING 



INCIDENTS, TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES, Etc. 



BY KEV. WILLIAM TAYLOE, 

Or THE CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE. 



" Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city." 
"The common people heard him gladly." 



EDITED BY W: P. STRICKLAND. 



% 



ft»-M: '**■»!* 



PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR 

BY CARLTON &. PORTER, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. 

1SG7. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 
D. L. ROSS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
New-York. 



-53 To- 



/ 



fe '(o <$/ 



INTRODUCTION. 



There is a certain class of books which need no 
introduction, a single glance at their title and con- 
tents being sufficient to secure them a reading. It is 
unnecessary to say that the following work is of that 
character. The author, as various allusions in the 
body of the work will show, was a street preacher 
before he went to California, and in the streets of the 
Monumental City and the Capital he received that 
initiatory training and qualification for addressing 
crowds in the open air, which fitted him so successfully 
for preaching the Gospel among the crowding thou- 
sands on the shores of the Pacific, before the erection 
of churches. His labors at home in this particular 
department of Christian effort doubtless pointed him 
out to the authorities of the Church as the very man 
for that new and interesting field, so strangely opened 
by Providence to the citizens of the United States. 

In the fall of 1848, while passing up Baltimore- 
street, he heard some one call his name. On turning 
in the direction of the sound, he saw Christian Keener 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

running toward him, exclaiming, " Bishop Waugh 
wants to see you, at Armstrong & Berry's book-store.'' 
He accordingly returned, and the bishop informed 
him, that if he had no objections, he would send him 
as a missionary to California. Always ready to obey 
the voice of the Church, he responded to the call, 
and, with his family, was in due time on his way to 
that distant field. 

The reader will find, in perusing these pages, the 
results of his seven years' labors in the land of gold 
and crime; and as he follows him from street to 
street, from hospital to Bethel, and from plaza .to 
quay, and hears his songs and sermons, and reads his 
sketches of men and manners, and the various scenes 
through which he passed, will learn more of the real 
social and political condition of the country than has 
ever yet been furnished by books or journals. 

The following letter, from the Hon. Wilson Flint, 
Senator in the California State Legislature, which 
was sent unsolicited, will show to what extent 
Mr. Taylor's labors were successful, as well as the 
manner in which they were appreciated : 

San Fkancisco, Sept. 10, 1856. 
Rev. Win. Taylor: 

My esteemed Friend — Learning that you were intending to 
publish a work, containing a history of your labors as a preacher 
of the Christian religion at San Francisco, from your arrival here 
in 1849 to the present time, I thought it would be in place for 



INTRODUCTION. 6 

me to remind yon of an incident which occurred in the Plaza, the 
first time I had the pleasure of listening to you. 

It was on a Sunday morning, in December, 1849, when land- 
ing from the Panama steamer, I wended my way with the throng 
to Portsmouth Square, this being at that time the great resort of 
the denizens of the rising metropolis. Three sides of the square 
were mostly occupied by buildings, which served the double pur- 
pose of hotels and gambling-houses, the latter calling being regard- 
ed at that time as a very reputable profession. On the fourth and 
upper side of the square was an adobe building, from the steps of 
which you were discoursing from the text, " The way of the 
transgressor is hard." 

It was a scene I shall never forget. On all sides of you were 
gambling-houses, each with its band of music in full blast. 
Crowds were going in and out; fortunes were being lost and 
won, terrible imprecations and blasphemies rose amid the horrid 
wail, and it seemed to me that Pandemonium was let loose. 
Above all this, I heard you utter the following prophetic sen- 
tence, which has since been fully realized : " The power of 
Satan seems at this time in the ascendency, wherever I cast my 
eye ; but, sure as there is a God in heaven, we will turn the 
tables upon the Evil One, and where now my voice meets naught 
but scoffs and jeers, with unwavering faith in my Divine Master, 
I hope to labor on to the time when these dens of iniquity around 
me shall all be swept away." 

Six years of time have sped on, and what a wondrous change ! 
Portsmouth Square now, of a Sabbath morn, is thronged with 
women and children wending their way to the numerous 
churches in the surrounding localities. A great metropolis 
spreads out on every side, and civilization and Christianity go 
hand in hand to humanize the race of man. 
Yours obediently, 

Wilson Flint, 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

Numerous as have been the works published in 
relation to California, its religious history has not 
been written ; and hence the present work occupies 
a department altogether new in California literature. 
As such, we have no doubt it will be sought after 
with avidity, and read by thousands. The work also 
supplies a desideratum in the literature of the Church, 
being a most admirable treatise on open-air preach- 
ing, illustrated by the labors of ten years. Its 
incidents and triumphant death scenes are of a most 
thrillingly interesting character, and the latter exem- 
plify, in an eminent degree, the excellence and value 

of religion. 

Editoe. 

New-Yobe: December 19, 1856. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
STREET PREACHING PAGE 11 

CHAPTER II. 
OBJECTIONS TO STREET PREACHING CONSIDERED 24 

CHAPTER III. 
SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER 32 

CHAPTER IV. 
FIRST PREACHING ON THE PLAZA 52 

CHAPTER V. 

PRIMITIVE CLASS-MEETINGS IN SAN FRANCISCO 57 

CHAPTER VI. 

MY FIRST PREACHING IN THE STREETS OF SACRAMENTO CITY 62 

CHAPTER VII. 
STARVATION IN AN EX-CITY HOSPITAL 66 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A BROADSIDE UPON THE ARMY OF THE ALIENS 73 

CHAPTER IX. 
THE IRISH SAILOR'S DILEMMA 75 

CHAPTER X. 
"THEY'LL THINK I'M A THIEF" 78 

CHAPTER XI. 
PREACHING IN A GAMBLING-HOUSE 82 

CHAPTER XEL 
CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO IN AN UPROAR 87 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
CITY HOSPITAL ON FIRE page 89 

CHAPTER XIV. 
THE PREACHING THAT KILLED THE PLAZA CLOWN 92 

CHAPTER XV. 
HELPED TO A TEXT BY THE THIEF THAT STOLE MY MONEY. 96 

CHAPTER XVI. 
THE HUMAN HEART 99 

CHAPTER XVII. 
THE INDEPENDENCE BELL 103 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
KING DAVID'S FOOL 10. 

CHAPTER XIX. 
THE TIME THE LORD DID NOT "KEEP THE CITY," AND WHY— 

THE GREAT FIRE 110 

CHAPTER XX. 
ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES 116 

CHAPTER XXL 
THE WHISKY-BARREL PULPIT— THE PORK-BARREL PULPIT 118 

CHAPTER XXII. 
WAYSIDE HEARERS 129 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
A MOTHER'S TODDY-LOVING SON 132 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
THE DEATH OF BELSHAZZAR 134 

CHAPTER XXV. 
A PERSONAL COLLISION ON THE PLAZA 138 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
A LIVING ILLUSTRATION 143 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
CALIFORNIA HUSBANDS MEETING THEIR WIVES 146 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
"DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE" 150 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
PEOFANE SWEARING page 152 

CHAPTER XXX. 
A SABBATH DAY'S WORK 155 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
"SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS" 157 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
DEFENSE OF THE SABBATH 159 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
EVIL TIDINGS 161 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
THE REPROBATE SAILOR REDEEMED 166 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
THE DRUNKEN SUICIDE'S FUNERAL 170 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
A PEEP INTO A CALIFORNIA LOYE-FEAST 174 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
"YOU'VE KNOCKED ME ALL INTO A KINK" 185 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
HONORARY CHURCH MEMBERS— "0, I'M SO 'SHAMED" 188 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
THE SAILOR'S VISION ON LONG WHARF 191 

CHAPTER XL. 
"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY" IN SAN FRANCISCO 193 

CHAPTER XLI. 
THE FARE HAS RISEN 207 

CHAPTER XLII. 
A DUELIST'S FUNERAL 210 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
RESTITUTION 215 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
"BHANGHAE1NG" THE SAILORS 219 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XLV. 

JAMES KING, OF WM., AND HIS MORAL PLATFORM page 243 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE FOUNTAIN OPENED 25T 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE MISSIONARY TO NINEVEH 262 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE DOWNFALL OF THE HAMAN FAMILY 272 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

LETTERS FROM HOME 282 

CHAPTER L. 

PATRIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN 290 

CHAPTER LI. 

A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS— A HARD CASE 302 

CHAPTER LII. 

THE SEBASTOPOL OF "OLD NICK" 342 

CHAPTER LIII. 

TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES 350 

s. switzee, of roxbury 351 

Isaac Jones and his Wife Mary 353 

Henry Dunn 358 

C. R. Hoyt 359 

Marshal B. Brown 361 

William H. Stevens 363 

Orlando Gale 365 

A. C. Chippell 367 

Morton, of Illinois 368 

James F. Dixon 371 

C. W. Bradley 372 

Romeo Dorwin 373 

William Crockett 376 

Dying Message of Edward Mow 380 

Brother Guy, and his two Dying Requests 381 

Charles Aurom 382 

Samuel M. Ramson 383 

The Brother who departed without the Sacrament 385 

The Dying German in a Stable 387 

The Dying Norwegian Boy 389 

Joseph M. Gustin 390 

Isaac Enslow 391 

Judson Forbes 892 



SEVEN YEARS' STREET PREACHING 

IN 

SAN FEAJSTCISCO, OAL. 



CHAPTER I. 

STREET PREACHING. 

"Why do you preach in the streets and high- 
ways ?" I answer, 

I. Because it is a duty enjoined by the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

The "great commission," under which every true 
embassador goes forth in the " ministry of reconcili- 
ation," by direct implication, enjoins the duty of 
out-door preaching : " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature" Did the apos- 
tles understand the Great Teacher to mean that they 
were to preach in the temple, in the synagogues, in 
"hired houses," and "upper rooms?" Certainly. 
Did they understand him to mean nothing more than 
that? Certainly not. They well knew that the 
temple, and the synagogues, and all the house room 



12 STREET PRF ACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

they could by possibility command, were they all 
open for their use, would contain but a very small 
proportion of the creatures embraced in their com- 
mission. Every word of this great command, framed 
by infinite wisdom, is simple and unequivocal. It 
evidently contemplates a proclamation of the Gospel 
as wide as " all out of doors," and so specific and 
personal as to embrace every single rebel of the 
fallen race. 

Again. The Saviour, illustrating, by the parable 
of the "Great Supper," the bounteous provision of 
mercy in the Gospel, enjoins, by direct command, 
the duty of out-door preaching : " Go out quickly 
into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in 
hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and 
the blind." " Go out into the highways and hedges, 
and compel them to come in, that my house may be 
filled." 

II. It IS SUPPORTED BY DlVINE AND APOSTOLIC PRE- 
CEDENT AND EXAMPLE. 

The only sermon of our Divine teacher on record, 
was preached on a mountain. Many others of 
which we have full "reports," were preached by 
the sea-shore, on the decks of ships, and in the streets 
of Capernaum. He preached, to be sure, in the 
temple and in the synagogues, but of his sermons on 
those occasions, there is less recorded than of his 



STREET PREACHING. 13 

" out-door sermons." We believe that he establish- 
ed, by his own example, the precedents he designed 
to be practically operative through all time, namely: 
To get all we can into the synagogues and churches, 
and. there preach to them, and then to "go out into 
the streets and lanes of the cities, and into the high- 
ways and hedges," and hunt up all the rest, and 
preach to them also. The apostles acted according- 
ly. The great apostle to the Gentiles was celebrated 
as an out-door preacher. 

III. It has been confirmed by a Divine attesta- 
tion, in that God has always signally owned and 
blessed the faithful preaching of the word in the 
streets, lanes, highways, and hedges, through all the 
history of the Church to the present time. Without 
going back to instance the singular courage display- 
ed and success attained by the out-door preaching 
of some of the Yaudois missionaries, in the Dark 
Ages, we would invite attention to the " field and 
street preaching" of more modern days. Witness 
the labors and successes of Whitefield, and Wesley, 
and Fletcher, and their coadjutors in the same work. 
God made the out-door preaching of those men a 
leading instrumentality in awaking the masses of 
the " United Kingdom of Great Britain," and in 
bringing about the great reformation of the eight- 
eenth century. See the labors and good fruits of 



14 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

the street preaching of "the apostle to the Irish,'* 
Gideon Ouseley. Should there be a resurrection of 
the brute creation, the experience of " Ouseley's 
white horse," from whose back he so often preached, 
will furnish an interesting chapter in the annals of 
"the new heavens and new earth." Again, wit- 
ness, in quite modern times, the street preaching 
and Gospel triumphs of the champions of the " Free 
Church of Scotland." 

Thus Jesse Lee drove the entering wedge of Meth- 
odistic Christianity into New-England. American 
camp-meetings of the different Churches come under 
the apostolic precedent of out-door preaching. See 
how they have been honored of God. Recount, if 
you can, the multiplied thousands of souls who have 
been converted at camp-meetings, multitudes of 
whom have washed their robes in the blood of Jesus, 
and are to-day seated above the circle of the heavens, 
praising God for camp-meetings. Strike out of the 
Church in America all her ministers and members 
who have been brought to God through the instru- 
mentality of camp-meetings, and you will have a 
practical demonstration of the truth of our position, 
which will astonish you. I instance camp-meetings 
not as a proof that the Gospel ministers of America 
have fulfilled all their duty in regard to out-door 
preaching, but as evidence that they have gifts 
eminently qualifying them for that work, and espe- 



STKEET PREACHING. 15 

cially to demonstrate the truth of the position with 
which I set out, namely, that God has always signally 
owned and blessed the out-door preaching of his em- 
bassadors. But says one, " The most of your instan- 
ces relate to periods when houses' of worship were 
not available, or were entirely inadequate to meet 
the demand. We have plenty of good churches now, 
and if the people want to hear the Gospel, let them 
come to church." Thank you, sir ; that will help me 
to another argument^ which I will, according to 
" Thomsonian practice," call Number 

IY. Demonstrating the moral necessity of street 
preaching, on the principle suggested, namely: The 
facts as they are exhibited in the present history of the 
world. 

Passing by heathendom and foreign Christian 
countries, I will confine my investigations to our 
own country. And now allow me to inquire of the 
objector, What proportion of the population of your 
town or city will your churches accommodate ? And 
what proportion of the people attend church ? E"ow, 
what can you do for those " creatures " embraced in 
the provisions of your Divine commission, but not 
embraced in your church accommodations ? To say 
that ih.Q vast proportion of your non-church-going 
population must either come to Church or go to hell 
unwarned, is to institute a new condition of salvation 



16 STEEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

unknown to the Gospel. Xow, in California, all the 
churches, Catholic and Protestant, will accommodate, 
say sixty thousand persons, which will leave two 
hundred and forty thousand "outsiders," and no 
church room to receive them ; "no, not so much as 
about the door." What would Jesus do in such a case ? 
There is room enough for every one of them in the 
compassion of God, and in the kingdom of grace ; for 
they " are not common or unclean," not excluded 
from the covenant of promise. Very many of them 
are the sons of our fathers and mothers in Israel, who 
have died in the faith. They went down to their 
graves praying for their children. The last words 
they uttered, as one by one they left the shore, were, 
"Tell my dear children to meet me in heaven?" 
Their sons have become prodigal and reckless in 
California, and yet the mention of their sainted 
mother checks the giddy laugh, and brings tears to 
their eyes. What would those fathers and mothers 
have us do for their wandering, lost children in the wil- 
derness ? Would they not say, would not the angels 
say, as Jesus hath said, once for all, " Go out quickly, 
and compel them to come in ?"" And do you not re- 
spond, " Amen ! Go, my brother ; go out quickly?" 
Though I have been singing and preaching the 
"royal proclamation," in the "highways," to these 
wanderers, for seven years, my tears would now, 
as I write, saturate the manuscript, at the remem- 



STREET PREACHING. 17 

brance that I have done so little to save them, and 
that I have seen so many hundreds of them dying in 
this land, without any hope of heaven. 

But let me ascend to a higher stand-point, and take 
a wider view of the subject. According to statistics 
furnished by the United States Census of 1850, the 
Methodists of this great republic have 12,467 church- 
es, which would accommodate 4,209,333 persons. 
Now, we profess to "believe that God's design, in 
raising up the people called Methodists, was to reform 
the continent, and spread Scriptural holiness over 
these lands." I am no croaker. I think I have a 
just appreciation of the great work God hath wrought 
through the Methodists, and other denominations of 
Christians as well, and I think I am unfeignedly 
thankful. But let us look again at the facts before 
mentioned. We have been engaged in this work of 
reforming the continent for upward of eighty years. 
"We have in our favor the constitution and laws of the 
land, one common language, ready access to all class- 
es of society, and every desirable facility for commu- 
nicating truth. We also have at command the mighty 
appliances of our mighty Gospel, and the spiritual 
resources of Omnipotent grace. And yet, in all this 
lapse of four-score years, we have only reached with 
the sound of the Gospel jubilee about one fifth of the 
population of the United States. As embassadors of 
Christ, we have, at last, " challenged for a hearing" 

2 



18 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

say 5,000,000 at one time, a little over 1,500,000 of 
whom, now living, have closed with the terms of the 
Gospel, and are now reconciled to God. The remain- 
ing 3,500,000 have possibly taken the matter under 
advisement, leaving say 20,000,000 of precious souls 
for whom we have no room in our churches. What 
shall we do to reach them, especially the masses not 
embraced under the ministry of any other Church ? 

But I would go up still higher, to a point whence I 
can have one grand view of the whole " field." Ac- 
cording to the census returns of 1850, all the churches 
of the United States, Catholic, Protestant, and all to- 
gether, will accommodate 14,000,000, leaving about 
10,000,000 of souls in this Christian republic, for 
whom there is no room in any of the churches. 
Four tenths of the population of these United States 
never go to church ! 

. "But," it is asked, " does not a much larger number 
than that indicated by the aggregate capacity of the 
churches occasionally attend church, alternately with 
other occasional church-goers?" If you will make 
a calculation of the actual aggregate attendance in 
the churches throughout the land, you will find the 
number resulting from such a calculation so far below 
the number indicated by the aggregate capacity of 
the churches, that you will have plenty of room left 
to accommodate all your occasional church-goers, 
without calling on one of our outside ten millions. 



STEEET PREACHING. 19 

Now, it is a question, which rises infinitely above 
any mere sectarian view of the subject, How shall 
the enlightening, purifying, elevating influences of 
the Gospel be brought to bear upon this mighty mass 
of neglected humanity ? " Righteousness exalteth a 
nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Our 
nation is reproached and enfeebled far beyond safe 
precedent by the church-going sinners, but look down 
to the lower strata, and see the ten millions who have 
no fear of God before their eyes, no care for the honor 
of the nation, no sympathy with the grand institutions 
which every American citizen should cherish as he 
does his life. They are, by their accumulating vices, 
locking the very wheels of government. They are 
corrupting the life-blood of the body politic. And 
they are deteriorating rapidly, and multiplying con- 
tinually ; first, by foreign immigration, and, second, 
by their own children, brought up under the special 
tutorship of Satan. Among the foreign immigration 
to our shores, are very many whose citizenship would 
be an honor to any nation ; but a large proportion 
may be set down, at best, us fifth-rate humanity, 
morally considered. 

These millions of neglectful and neglected souls 
are all subjects of redeeming mercy in Christ, and 
the infinite heart of Jesus, with every pulsation, 
throbs in sympathy with their woes. They can be 
redeemed and elevated to good citizenship in a 



20 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Christian republic, and to heirship in the kingdom of 
glory. But the question remains, How shall they be 
reached and saved ? The statesman replies, " Educate 
the masses, multiply public schools, academies, and 
colleges ; teach every prattler in the nation how to 
read." That is a suggestion worthy of a statesman, 
a most desirable end to be attained. But will mere 
intellectual training, however important, secure the 
end proposed? Hear what General Washington 
says on this subject: " Of all the dispositions and 
habits which lead to political prosperity, religion 
and morality are indispensable supports. In vain 
would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who 
should labor to subvert the great pillars of human 
happiness, those firmest props of men and citizens ! 
The mere politician, equally with the pious man, 
ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could 
not trace all their connections with private and pub- 
lic felicity. Let it be simply asked, Where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the 
sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which 
are instruments of investigation in the courts of 
justice ? And let us indulge with caution the sup- 
position that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influ- 
ence of refined education on minds of a peculiar 
structure, reason and experience both forbid us to 
expect that national morality can prevail in ex- 



STREET PREACHING. 21 

elusion of religious principle." Educate a rogue, (I 
use the term "educate" in the popular sense of 
intellectual training,) and the increase of his intel- 
lectual power will but make him the more ac- 
complished as a rogue, and proportionally more 
dangerous to society. The American Bible Society, 
the grand Christian institution on whose catholic 
platform all denominations of Christians meet, and 
pray, and labor together, and realize and exhibit 
"how good and how pleasant it is for brethren 
to dwell together in unity," has pledged itself to 
place a Bible in the hands of every American family, 
a conception and purpose worthy so noble an institu- 
tion. The Tract Societies of different grades are 
doing a great work for the moral improvement of the 
masses. An increasing diffusion of religious litera- 
ture in general is looked upon, and justly too, as a 
great means of good to society. But, after all, the 
question arises, Will a man, who never goes to 
church, nor desires to go, read the Bibles, and tracts, 
and religious books you put into his hands I A few 
may, but the mass of such people certainly will not. 
They have no desire for religion, and no taste for 
religious literature, and they are not so self-denying 
as to spend time in reading what is not agreeable to 
their views and feelings. These means of diffusing 
religious knowledge, however important as auxil- 
iaries, do not constitute the peculiar instrumentality 



22 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

ordained of God for the enlightenment and salvation 
of the world. If this were so, then the great commis- 
sion would have been framed accordingly, and would 
read: "Go, publish Bibles, tracts, papers, and re- 
ligious books, and scatter them abroad as 'leaves 
from the tree of life for the healing of the nations.' " 
Jesus says no such thing; but " Go ye into all the 
world, mid preach the Gospel to every creature." 
Let the embassadors of Jesus use all the collateral 
appliances at their command, as valuable aids, but 
not to be substituted for God's appointment of 
preaching the Gospel. 

The whole matter resolves itself into this, that 
these ten millions of our neighbors, whom we are 
commanded to love as we love ourselves, must have 
"the Gospel preached unto them," or the mass of 
them will go to perdition. They are blinded by the 
god of this world, and will not come to us. Should 
we not, in the name and spirit of Him who came to 
seek and to save the lost, "go" to them? 

In concluding this argument, I would most re- 
spectfully submit a suggestion for the consideration 
of wise and good men. Let a good representation 
of the American pulpit, for the love of souls, as the 
visible representatives of Jesus, "go out into the 
highways, and preach the Gospel." Let each act 
upon his own responsibility, as he that must give an 
account ; but, as far as practicable, let the ministers 



3TREET PREACHING. 23 

of all denominations act in concert. Let them, 
like the ancient heralds of the great jubilee of the 
Jews, simultaneously "proclaim liberty throughout 
all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." Let 
the rising, swelling blasts of ten thousand trumpets, 
unite their echoes from Dan to Beersheba, from 
Maine to New Mexico, and from South Carolina to 
California ; and let all the laity, who " know the joy- 
ful sound," " run to and fro," bearing the " tidings," 
personally, to their neighbors, and knowledge shall 
be increased. 



24 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE II. 

OBJECTIONS TO STREET PREACHING CONSIDERED. 

I. Do I HEAR YOU SAY IT IS A DEGRADATION OF 
MINISTERIAL DIGNITY? 

I reply: Any minister of the Gospel, whose 
"ministerial dignity" depends, for its elevation 
and support, upon the sacredness of a consecrated 
pulpit, is not, I confess, a suitable person for a street 
preacher. A preacher, to succeed in the streets, 
must be dignified by a special unction of the Holy 
Spirit. He must feel such an undying thirst for the 
salvation of sinners as will prompt him, like Aaron, 
to run out into the camp, and "stand between the 
living and the dead ;" not only to offer the incense 
of earnest prayer to God on their behalf, but also 
to warn them from the example of their neighbors, 
who have perished in their sins. Then the accom- 
panying presence of Him who hath said, " Lo, I am 
with you always, even unto the end of the world," 
will consecrate any place in which he may open his 
commission, as much as the spot where " Jacob slept, 
and dreamed, and saw the ladder that reached from 



OBJECTIONS TO STREET PREACHING. 25 

earth up into heaven ;" and cause every one to feel, 
" Surely the Lord is in this place. How dreadful is 
this place ! This is none other but the house of God ; 
and this is the gate of heaven." 

II. IT MAKES THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL TOO 
COMMON. 

I think there is much more danger of making the 
preaching of the Gospel too uncommon than "too 
common ;" too abstract in the matter of it, and too 
high in its mode of delivery. Not common enough 
to flow readily into the common channels of human 
thought and sympathy, nor materially to aifect the 
common relations and conduct of men. A man, to 
succeed as a street preacher, must be eminently 
practical in his preaching. Nothing but the simple 
preaching of our common Gospel, in a manner to 
arrest the attention and engage the feelings of the 
common people, will enable him to get, or to hold, 
an audience in the "highways." It was this that 
made the "common people" hear Jesus g]adly. 
I will here add, that the street is not the place for 
sectarian discussions ; but the Gospel, in all its 
essential characteristics, should be clearly an- 
nounced. 

III. It WILL DETRACT FROM THE INTEREST OF THE 
PEOPLE IN THE REGULAR MINISTRATIONS OF THE PULPIT. 



26 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Such a proposition is philosophically unsound, and 
is contradicted by the facts in all history relating to 
this subject. Street preaching, where churches were 
not, has always led to their erection, and when effi- 
ciently administered, even in old cities, has always 
contributed to increase the congregations in church. 
Such is, £0 palpably, the testimony of history, that I 
need not instance the proofs; and such is the result of 
my own observations. I had the honor of preaching 
two years (excepting the cold weather) in the streets 
of Georgetown, D. C. The effect was manifestly good 
in the increase of the regular church audiences. 
And in a revival there, under the superintendence of 
Rev. Henry Tarring, of precious memory, now in 
glory, quite a number of the converts testified that 
they received their religious awakening under the 
"market-house preaching." Among those converts 
were several Roman Catholics, who had never heard 
Protestant preaching until attracted by the street 
exercises. 

I also had the pleasure of preaching a year in 
Belair Market, Baltimore City. Two persons, I 
remember, kneeled on the pavement, and cried for 
mercy, and were there happily converted. One of 
them, by the name of " Shilling," I learn is still a use- 
ful member of the Church in North Baltimore Station. 
During the summer of my preaching in that market, 
" Father Darling," the sexton of the Monument-street 



OBJECTIONS TO STREET PREACHING. 27 

Church, who knew the faces of all the regular 
auditors, said, " I cannot tell where so many strangers 
come from: They keep coming in every Sunday 
night, more and more." During the revival in the fall, 
under the direction of my much-esteemed colleagues, 
Revs. C. B. Tippett and J. S. Martin, a number of 
those strangers made a profession of religion, and 
testified that, though they had lived for years in the 
city, they had not been to church, till attracted by 
the market-house preaching. My worthy colleagues 
there, took a part in the street preaching. 

In the city of San Francisco my street preaching 
has been a regular advertisement for the churches in 
general, for I always take occasion to announce the 
church appointments. It has always contributed 
to our church congregations ; and a majority of those 
whom I had the happiness of seeing converted in this 
wicked city, say two hundred, testified to the fact 
that they were awakened under the street preaching. 
This city, however, does not furnish a fair test of the 
legitimate effect of the preached word, in doors or 
out, as I will take occasion to show in the progress of 
this work. 

IV. It creates riots and confusion in the 

STREETS. 

I apprehend that much of the trouble which has 
been heard of in connection with street preaching, 



28 STKEET PKEACHING IN SAN FBANCISCO. 

resulted from injudicious attacks upon Romanism, or 
upon personal character, or for want of tact in con- 
trolling large audiences. I do not know, definitely, 
the merits of any given case, but can readily see how, 
in various ways, a man could bring upon himself a 
great deal of trouble, and defeat the object of his 
mission. 

Still, "men love darkness rather than light," and 
it would not be surprising if an earnest, faithful, 
modern street preacher should share the same lot 
that St. Paul did at Athens, Philippi, and other 
places, but we never learned that the apostle consid- 
ered that a sufficient objection to lead him to desist 
from preaching in the streets. I have been preach- 
ing regularly in the streets for more than ten years, 
and seven of them among California gamblers and 
rum-sellers, and through the good providence of the 
Lord, I have never had a serious disturbance, nor 
lost a congregation in the streets. 

Y. It will being the peeachee into collision 

WITH THE CIVIL AUTHOEITIES. 

We should be, careful, while we do our duty fear- 
lessly, not to provoke a collision with "the powers 
that be." If we succeed in controlling the masses, 
and preserve order at our meetings, we will not be 
likely to have any trouble " at court." But if, after 
all, we should be interfered with in the conscientious 



OBJECTIONS TO STREET PREACHING. 29 

discharge of our duty, under the functions of our 
high commission, then return the apostolic answer, 
" Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken 
unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we 
cannot but speak the things which we have seen and 
heard." 

VI. THE PREACHER IS NOT ABLE TO PREACH IN 
CHURCH AND OUT DOORS TOO, AND MUST GIVE THE PREF- 
ERENCE TO THE REGULAR SERVICES OF THE SANCTUARY. 

Very well, if such is the fact in your case, I think 
you choose the right alternative. I would not advise 
you to neglect your regular appointments by any 
means ; but yet, are there not very many who can, 
in addition to their regular appointments in church, 
take an extra one in the streets? I never have, nor 
do I now, sit in judgment on the consciences of my 
brethren in regard to this matter. Nearly the whole 
itinerant family are out-door preachers at camp- 
meetings and other extra occasions, and many of 
them preach themselves into a premature grave. I, 
nevertheless, believe that there are ten thousand 
ministers in the United States, among the different 
denominations, who are naturally well adapted to 
this work, and who, by proper application, would 
excel as street preachers, and fill their pulpits all the 
better for it. They have good voices for singing, a 
ready utterance, and a fair development of tact in the 



30 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

management of promiscuous audiences ; and all that 
is necessary, is for them to feel that " Woe is me if 
I preach not the Gospel" in the streets, and go at it, 
and stick to it, till the Master says, " It is enough." 

YII. It will give the preacher the bronchitis. 

I give it, as my candid opinion, that your throat 
and lungs will suffer much less in the pure open air 
than they do in the carbonized, sickly atmosphere of 
crowded churches. I am accustomed to listen to the 
same clear voices in the streets, three hundred and 
sixty-five days in each year: "Fish! fish! fresh 
salmon !" " Eggs ! eggs ! fresh California eggs !" 
"Candy! Here's your celebrated cough candy! 
Everybody buys it ; now's your chance !" " Here's 
your fresh California pears, apples, oranges, and 
peaches! Only two bits a pound! Buy 'em up!" 
" Latest news from the East ! Arrival of the ' John 
L. Stephens !' Here's your New- York Herald, New- 
York Tribune, and New-Orleans True Delta!" 
"Who ever heard of the fish, egg, candy, or fruit 
" crier," or the newsboys taking the bronchitis ? An 
auctioneer will stand in the street, and " cry " at the 
top of his voice for two hours every day, and yet we 
never heard of an auctioneer taking the bronchitis. 
"He gets used to it." It is his business, and his 
physical functions adapt themselves to it. Rev. I. 
Owen and myself were, a few years ago, highly 



OBJECTIONS TO STREET PREACHING. 31 

entertained for a few minutes, as we passed along tho 
streets of San Francisco, with the extraordinary earn- 
estness of an auctioneer. I said to my friend, " If we 
could get ministers to ' cry aloud ' as earnestly over 
living immortal souls as this man does over spoiled 
cheese at two cents per pound, what a waking up 
they would produce among the sleeping thousands of 
this land !" 

YIII. It will crack and injure the voice. 

If you will not bind your neck with a tight cravat, 
and if you will stand erect, head up, speak naturally, 
and not strain your voice, you will experience an 
improvement in the quality and an increasing com- 
pass and power of voice, and a greater facility in 
natural utterance by regular street preaching. Ten 
years ago, preaching two sermons in church and one 
in the streets, caused me hoarseness of voice and 
great weariness of body ; but now, with three ser- 
mons in church and two in the streets, each Sab- 
bath, I have no hoarseness, and but little weariness. 
Before I commenced street preaching, I was subject 
to violent colds and soreness of throat and lungs; 
but I have known, by experience, nothing of " sore 
throat" or "sore lungs" for years. I would not in- 
timate that I am invulnerable to such affections ; but 
I do believe that the danger is lessened, at least fifty 
per cent., by the out-door preaching. 



32 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE IE. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 

To my young brother who has made up his mind 
to " go out into the highways," and preach the Gos- 
pel, I would respectfully submit a few suggestions. 

I. Bead over your commission: "Go ye, therefore, 
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you : and lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world. Amen." Then reassure 
your faith by a little Gospel logic, thus : 1. Am I 
an embassador of Christ ? 2. Do I obey the orders 
of the Master, " teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever he has commanded ?" 3. The conclusion : 
" Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world." 

For what purpose is he with me? Is it not to 
speak through his unworthy embassador, to apply 
the word immediately to the hearts of the hearers, 
and to save now such as will come unto him ? In 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 33 

your own mind and conduct lay these premises in 
the streets, and the conclusion will apply as logically 
and as certainly to preaching in the streets, as within 
consecrated walls. Let the argument be accompa- 
nied with an " unction of the Holy One," prompting 
you to say, "The love of Christ constraineth us" to 
"go out" to seek the lost, and preach to those who 
most need it. Then, 

II. Act under the authority of your commission, 
upon y'Our own convictions of duty. Consult no man 
as to whether or not you should do your duty. You 
may inquire, if need be, where, in the streets, the 
greatest number of the " creatures" to whom you are 
sent, may be congregated, and what is the best hour 
in the day to get the best hearing ; but to consult 
whether or not you should " go out," is, first, wrong 
in principle, because Jesus says Go, and thus fastens 
the obligation upon you, unless the condition of your 
health, or other providential bar, should operate to 
limit your obligation to preaching in the church ; and, 
secondly, you will find in every place some excellent 
and pious men who will argue the inexpedience of 
street preaching in that place, and will thereby weak- 
en your faith and purposes, and commit themselves 
to the negative of the question, against you. Where- 
as, if you simply announce your appointment for 
preaching in the street, and assign as the reason your 

3 



34 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

convictions of duty in the premises, and bespeak the 
sympathy, and prayers, and cooperation of God's 
people, and invite all, saints and sinners, to attend, 
those who do not sympathize with the movement 
will not attend, but, not having committed them- 
selves against it in advance, they will say but little, 
and give you no trouble. 

III. THE " PREPARATION " FOR A SERMON IN THE 

street. You should have clear perceptions of the 
leading principles and facts you wish to announce. 
Let your propositions be briefly stated, in simple, 
appropriate language, and your principles be clearly 
denned. If you wish to employ arguments, let them 
be short, practical, and to the point. Illustrate the 
truth amply, and apply it promptly and pointedly as 
you proceed. Draw your illustrations from the every- 
day transactions and occurrences of life, as did the 
Saviour and his apostles. Make it a point, at all 
times, to gather up and store away suitable illustra- 
tions of Bible truth, from the streets, from the news- 
papers, hospitals, prisons, and from your pastoral 
visitations in domestic circles. Fresh facts, from 
personal observation, are much better in their effect 
than borrowed ones, or second-hand stories. 

Do not confine yourself so closely to any system or 
arrangement of your sermon, as to prevent your seiz- 
ing and laying under contribution all the incidents 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 35 

of the occasion which may serve to illustrate your 
subject. These spontaneous illustrations, seized im- 
promptu, and skillfully applied, can hardly fail of a 
good effect upon the audience. 

If you will bear with me, I will give you just here 
a few illustrations of this point. One Sunday after- 
noon in 1853, preaching on the " Long Wharf," and 
wishing to illustrate the distinction between a decent, 
well-behaved sinner, outwardly, and a violent, out- 
breaking sinner, I remarked, after stating the point, 
" Gentlemen, I stand on what I suppose to be a cask 
of brandy. Keep it tightly bunged and spiled, and 
it is entirely harmless, and answers some very good 
purposes ; it even makes a very good pulpit. But 
draw that spile, and fifty men will lie down here, 
and drink up its spirit, and then wallow in the gut- 
ter, and before ten o'clock to-night will carry sorrow 
and desolation to the hearts of fifty families. So 
that man there, trying to urge his horse through the 
audience," all eyes turned from the cask to the man, 
" if he had kept his mouth shut, we might have 
supposed him a very decent fellow ; but finding the 
street blocked up with this living mass of humanity, 
he drew the spile, and out gurgled the most profane 
oaths and curses. But, while there is now all the 
difference between outwardly moral and out-breaking 
sinners, as between a tightly-bunged and an open 
cask of brandy, I would invite your attention to a 



36 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

time when there will be no material difference be- 
tween them. 

" Should you attempt to get this harmless cask of 
brandy through the custom-house in Portland, Maine, 
the inspector would pay no regard to the outside ap- 
pearance, or separate value of the cask: he would 
extract the bung, let down his phial, draw out and 
smell its contents ; then shake his head, and mark it 
contraband. My friends, God has a great custom- 
house, through which every man has to pass for in- 
spection, before he can be admitted into his kingdom. 
When you are entered for examination, do you imagine 
that the great omniscient Inspector will pay any 
regard to your outside appearance or conduct? 
ISTay, my dear sirs, he will sound the inner depths 
of your souls. All who are ' filled with the spirit' 
of Christ will be passed, and treasured up as meet 
for the Master's use ; but all who have not the love 
of God shed abroad in their hearts, will be pro- 
nounced ' contraband,' and branded eternally with, 
8 Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for 
the devil and his angels.' " 

On another occasion, near the same place, I was 
preaching on the bondage of sin, and said to the 
large audience assembled: "My dear sirs, you are 
sla/es to sin and Satan; your conduct proves it, and 
frequently you unwittingly confess it. I said to a 
man a few days ago: 'My friend, you ought not to 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 37 

swear.' 'It's a free country,' said lie, 'and I'll do 
as I please.' 'But, sir,' said I, 'a gentleman will 
not please to indulge in a practice so useless and 
wicked. Moreover, I don't allow a man to swear 
in the presence of my little boys here.' 'Well,' 
said he, ' I know it is a mean practice ; but I've got 
into the habit of it, and I can't quit it.' So, in try- 
ing to apologize for your various sins, you have often 
confessed the fact that you are a poor prisoner in 
bondage to sin. A man enslaved by habits of 
intemperance came to see me a few days since, and 
said: 'Father Taylor, what shall I do? I have a 
dear wife and four sweet little children in New 
York, and I am afraid I shall never see them again,' 
crying as though his heart would break. ' I used to 
have plenty of everything I wanted, and was happy 
with my dear family ; (God bless their dear souls, I 
fear I shall never see them again ;) but I came to 
California, fell in with bad company, and have gotten 
into this cursed habit of drinking, and can't quit it. 
I've tried often ; but it's no use.' ' Now, my friend, 
said I, ' for the sake of your family, that you say you 
love, for the sake of your poor body, so much abused 
by rum, and for the sake of your soul, redeemed by 
the blood of Jesus, do make one more effort to be 
a man. Shun your drinking companions as you 
would Satan, and fly from the grog-shops as you 
would from the yawning mouth of hell; and cry 



38 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

to God in the name of Jesus for pardon and help.' 
'I will, Father Taylor, I will. So help me God, I'll 
never drink another drop.' The very next week 
I fonnd him drunk in the streets. 

" One snch, came to me a short time ago ; and 
after relating the sad tale of his sorrows, asked to 
sign the pledge. I gave him a pledge, and he signed 
it, saying : ' There it is ; my name is there once for 
all. Henceforth I'll be a sober man.' The next 
day, as I passed up California-street, I saw him with 
a demijohn in his hand. 'Why, my friend,' said I, 
'what are you doing with that stuff?' 'O,' said 
he, 'I thought, as I was knocking off for good this 
time, I would just take one more nip.' My dear 
friends, such is your own bondage to your prevailing 
sins, whatever they may be. Chains of habit are 
stronger than chains of steel; you cannot break 
them." 

Just at that moment, a candidate for the chain- 
gang was conducted along the street, with a heavy 
chain around his leg. Said I : 

" Look at that poor fellow ! How gladly would 
he kick off that heavy chain, and be free ! But 
look at that great band of iron round his leg, and the 
strong links. He cannot break them. And yet he 
is no more a prisoner to-day, under tha.t heavy chain, 
in the hands of his keeper, than you are under the 
chains of sinful habit, in the hands of your keeper, 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 39 

the devil, by whom you are ' led captive at his will.' 
1 O, well,' says one, c if that be true, it is no use for 
us to try to be better, and you had as well let us 
alone.' That such is your bondage to sin, there is 
not a question, your own consciences and the word 
of God being judges ; and your utter inability to free 
yourselves is equally true. You may, to be sure, 
under certain helpful influences, break off from some 
of the outward forms of sin, but not from sin itself. 
You have tried it often, and failed every time. 
6 "What, then, shall we do V says one. Ah ! I have 
you now just where I wanted to get you ; where the 
Philippian jailer was when he cried to Paul and 
Silas, ' Sirs, what must I do to be saved V Into the 
self-conscious bondage which St. Paul describes in 
the seventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, 
'I consent unto the law that it is good.' ' But I see 
another law in my members warring against the 
law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to 
the law of sin, which is in my members,' The law 
of sin in your members, sinful propensities, passions, 
and habits. Do you understand the practical work- 
ings of that law ? i O, wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death V 
"Not only imprisoned, but bound to a dead body, face 
to face, and limb to limb. Who shall deliver me 
from such bondage and death? Thanks be unto 
God, there is aji ajinighty deliverer now waiting to 



40 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

be gracious. c God, through Jesus Christ our Lord,' 
can, and will now deliver you, if you call upon him 
while he is near." 

On the occasion last referred to, the wind being 
high, there was a sudden cracking noise heard among 
the shipping, and a part of the audience started to 
run and see what the matter was, when I said : 

" What a dreadful thing it would be for some old 
ship to be wrecked. You would talk about it all 
day, aod to-morrow morning all the papers would 
herald the sad disaster and loss ; but souls, precious 
souls, one of which is worth more than all the fleets 
and navies of the world, are wrecked in our midst 
dayly, and drift down the gulf stream of despair into 
the maelstrom of hell, and nothing is said about it, 
no paper announces the sad disaster; a soul wrecked 
and damned forever ! no possibility of recovery, and 



IY. In REGARD TO THE MANAGEMENT OF AN OUT- 
DOOR audience, I would remark : 

1. If you apprehend disturbance, put every man 
on his good behavior as an American citizen, or as 
persons who have had some advantages in " good 
breeding," and who have self-respect, and presume 
that good order is what you expect, as a matter of 
course. If a man misbehave, always speak kindly to 
him. Appeal to his reason and common sense, and 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 41 

if he has any soul in him, and not too much rum, 
you can do anything with him you please. Some 
fools have to be answered " according to their folly." 
One Sunday morning, as I was preaching on Davis- 
street, a fellow came close to the barrel on which I 
stood, and looking up into my face, said : 

" The apostle David says, it is hard for thee to 
kick against the pricks." 

" See here, my friend," said I, " when did you 
arrive, sir?" 

" I came from the old country," said he, " about 
six years ago." 

"But I want to know when you came to Califor- 
nia?" 

" O, a good while ago," said he. 

" How many days since ?" said I. He hesitated, 
and looked for an opening through the crowd, by 
which he might escape, and then replied : 

" About two weeks ago, sir." 

" I knew," said I, " by your conduct that you had 
recently arrived, and had not learned how to behave 
yourself here yet. You seem to imagine that Ave 
were all a set of heathen here in California, and that 
you could ' cut up,' and do as you please. ISTow as 
you are a stranger in these parts, I will inform you 
that the order of the day in California is for all 
classes of society to respect the preaching of the 
Gospel, and never to disturb a preacher in the dis- 



42 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

charge of his duty, and the fellow that dare persist 
in such an outrage may expect that even the gam- 
blers will i give him a licking.' " 

I have often caused men, when trying to make a 
disturbance, to run and hide themselves, by offering 
an apology for their conduct. "Don't hurt that 
poor fellow, friends ; we must make great allowance 
for his bad conduct. It is fair to presume that 
he has just arrived from some barbarous island 
of the Pacific, and has not yet learned how to 
behave himself." To turn the eyes of an audience, 
sparkling with good-humored contempt, upon a fel- 
low, will move him as suddenly, almost, as a charge 
of bayonets. I have, however, always run such 
fellows off the track so good-humoredly, that I have 
never yet had an after difficulty with one of them. 

2. If by a cry of fire, or otherwise, your congrega- 
tion is scattered, do not be discouraged, but watch 
your opportunity to take advantage of the disturbing 
excitement, and set your sails to take the breeze; 
and you will, probably, double or quadruple your 
congregation in five minutes, and then, under the 
excitement of the occasion, thunder home the truth 
into the wakeful, curious minds of the crowd. An 
important point is gained, when, by any legitimate 
means, the people are fairly waked up, so as to 
listen attentively. Get your metal melted, and then 
mold it. I might produce a hundred illustrations 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 43 

of this subject from real life ; but a few may suffice 
here, as they will be interspersed through the subse- 
quent pages of this work. When preaching in 
Georgetown Market, in 1846, on one occasion, a 
sudden noise was heard up the canal, near where we 
stood ; and it was rumored that a boy was drowning. 
As the congregation ran, I sang ; and in one minute 
they were all back, and quietly waiting for the 
remaining part of the sermon. Once, in Belair Mar- 
ket, Baltimore City, in 1848, I was about half through 
my discourse, when a large funeral procession passed 
by, accompanied by a "band of music." The melody 
of the "band" took the ears of my audience ; and as 
I saw them beginning to break away to join the 
procession, I said, " Brethren, we can make better 
music than that;" and struck up the best song at 
command, in which the " congregation " heartily 
joined. O the pathos and melody of that song ! 
We heard no more of the "band of music." The 
result was that I held the audience ; and a friend 
standing out where he had a good view, said, "At 
least one hundred of the procession broke rank, and 
came to the preaching." 

In 1854, on the Plaza, in San Francisco, just as I 
was reading my text, a Frenchman stole a pair of 
boots on the opposite side of the Plaza ; and the cry 
rang through the streets, "Stop thief ! stop thief! stop 
thief!" causing one general rush. Seeing that I 



44 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

could not directly withstand the force of the tide, I 
said, " Run, boys, run and catch him ! Put him into 
the station-house, and hasten back. I've got some- 
thing to tell you. I'll sing again, and wait for you." 
By the time the song was ended, back came the crowd, 
doubled, and multiplied by the addition of all the 
thief-catchers within a dozen of squares. I then, as 
I always do, tried to improve the occasion, saying, 
" Gentlemen, the devil helped that poor Frenchman 
into a bad job, when lie stole those boots. The old 
fellow T is very sharp, and does not always design to 
get his servants into such troubles ; for he wishes to 
tie them permanently to his interest, and lead them 
quietly down to hell. While you look with con- 
tempt upon the poor boot-stealer, you forget that 
many of you are equally dishonest, only you steal in 
some more honorable way. And you overlook the 
fact that most of you are guilty of the outrageous 
crime of ' robbing God.' The devil tries to blind 
you to that fact, until you exhaust the patience of 
God, and fill up the measure of your iniquity, and 
then, when the righteous God delivers you over to 
your master, whose companionship and service you 
have chosen, the same smooth, diabolic tongue 
which deceived our first parents, and now lures 
you along so charmingly in the way to hell, will 
then, in tones of thunder, pursue your frightened 
souls through the caverns of dark damnation, and 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 46 

ring the cry eternally in your ears, 'Stop thief! 
stop thief! Catch him ! catch him?"' 

A cry of fire has often elicited appeals of this 
character: "Why, my friends, the devouring fire is 
a dreadful thing. To see the labors of years con- 
sumed in an hour, and poor families turned out 
homeless and friendless. But O, my God ! what are 
all the disasters of fire, here, compared with the in- 
terminable fires of hell, which will soon break out 
upon the souls of most of my audience, unless they 
fly to Christ for refuge. "Who among us 'shall dwell 
with the devouring fire ?' who among us shall ' dwell 
with everlasting burnings?' " Isa. xxxiii, 14. 

Once on the Plaza the congregation was disturbed 
by a false alarm of fire, and I said: " My dear sirs, 
how quickly a cry of fire, though often, as in this 
case, a false alarm, starts you. You run as though 
the salvation of the world depended on the race. I 
come to you here every Sabbath with an alarming 
cry, the clanger of which, I warn you, is more dread- 
ful than the burning of all the cities on the globe at 
one time, and I never raise a false alarm. I cry, Fire ! 
fire ! fire ! hell fire ! It is breaking out in our very 
midst every clay, and sweeping down the souls of your 
neighbors into the hope] ess depths of the burning lake 
beneath, whence ' the smoke of their torments will 
ascend forever and ever !' Why do you not run, and 
fly as from the brink of hell, and take refuge in the 



46 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

cleft Eock of the Gospel, the ' Eock of Ages,' in 
which if you abide, the conflagration that shall con- 
sume the universe shall not singe a hair of your heads? 
The decisions of this clay may probably decide the 
question with you forever." 

Attending the Petaluma Camp-meeting a short time 
since, while a brother was preaching very earnestly, 
a horse broke loose in the rear of the preacher's stand, 
and making a great noise among the wagons, the peo- 
ple sprang to their feet, en masse, and many started 
to run. The preacher stood confused for a moment, 
when a loud voice from the stand said : " "What a 
dreadful thing it would be for an old horse to run off 
and break his neck, but for a few immortal souls to 
go down to hell is a very small matter, brethren. 
Go ahead with your sermon, brother." The people 
bent to their seats almost as suddenly as if they had 
been shot at, and the preacher proceeded with his 
discourse. 

In the summer of 1855, I had an appointment to 
preach one week-night, in a large bar-room on Moor's 
Flat, in the mountains. The congregation assembled 
early, and spent an hour in playing ball. When the 
bell rang for preaching the mass of the audience 
assembled on the porch, and " cracked jokes," and 
sang lewd songs, with the design, I thought, of intim- 
idating the preacher. After letting them conduct the 
exercises in that way for a few minutes, I said: " Hold 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 47 

on, boys, and let me sing you a song." They gave 
audience, and I did my best on one of my best pieces. 
Nothing could be more calm than the salubrious at- 
mosphere on that occasion, and the surrounding 
mountain heights, and deep "canyons," and giant 
trees of the dense forest, all combined to render the 
scene impressively grand and solemn. The echoes of 
the song came back from the neighboring mountains, 
and the trees seemed vocally to be praising God in 
song. The singing ended, I said: "Now, boys, walk 
in here, I have something to tell you." They all slip- 
ped in as quietly as possible, and I had a blessed season 
in pressing home upon their hearts the word of life. 
In July, 1855, I spent a Sabbath in New Orleans, 
a beautiful mining town, high up in the mountains of 
California. It was said that a copy of the anti-gam- 
bling law, which had been passed at the late session of 
the Legislature, had not been forwarded to the author- 
ities in that place, and therefore did not take effect 
in New Orleans, in consequence of which it was said 
that nearly all the gamblers of those mountains had 
assembled in that town to carry on their business. 
During my short stay with them I preached four 
times in the streets, and once in a private house. 
They listened to me in the street three times with 
marked respect and attention, but when, on Sunday 
afternoon, I took the street, and commenced to sing 
them up for a fourth hearing, they seemed to think that 



48 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

they had had " enough of a good thing," and that 
they would " run me off the track." So they got up 
a boy-fight near by in the street, between an Ameri- 
can boy and a Spaniard, and the cries rang, " Huz- 
zah for Young America !" I sat down on my " goods- 
box" pulpit, and waited till the fight was over, and 
then arose and commenced to sing again. The fight 
had attracted a dense crowd, and the thing I had to 
do, was to take them in the name of the Lord, and 
" compel them," if not to " come in," at least to listen 
attentively to the invitation sent out by the Master. 
As I was engaged in drawing the crowd with the 
second song, the fellows next "got up" a dog-fight, 
and at it they went hissing and whooping, when 
I said, " Eun, boys, run ! We are all seeking enjoy- 
ment, and trying to be happy ! There's a rare oppor- 
tunity ! You are under a high excitement of animal 
feeling ! A glorious entertainment that ! What an 
intellectual feast it must be to enlightened, high- 
minded American gentlemen, to see a couple of 
dogs fight!" By that time I had the last man of 
them, and the good-natured dogs, having nobody to 
prompt them, concluded not to fight, and trotted 
away together; but their prompters all remained 
to listen, and I proceeded, saying: " Gentlemen, I do 
not blame you for seeking enjoyment, and for trying 
to be happy. God, who made us, and endowed us 
with wonderful powers of intellect and heart, de- 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 49 

signed us to be happy, and hence this insatiable thirst 
for happiness which constitutes the mainspring of hu- 
man action. The difference between us is in regard 
to the source whence we may derive substantial 
happiness, whence the demands of these quenchless 
longings of our souls may be met. You have tried 
a great many sources, money making and money 
spending, rum drinking and gambling, with occasional 
boy and dog fights. Bills were posted all through 
your streets last week, promising a rich treat for im- 
mortal souls, on the Fourth of July, in American Val- 
ley. The intellectual feast to commence with a fight 
between a bull and a grizzly bear. The second course 
to consist of a 'magnificent dinner,' and as much 
whisky as could be desired at two bits a 'nip.' 
The third course to consist of music and dancing 
among the men, (ladies were very scarce,) which 
might be protracted till every soul was satisfied. 
Your undying spirits were so hungry and restless 
that you could not let such an opportunity pass, 
so away you went to American Valley. To youi 
great disappointment, the bull and bear had de- 
termined to remain friends, and would not fight. 
The dinner was good, the whisky was very bad, 
but you thought you would make it up in the ball- 
room, so you kicked round there for a few hours, 
and, stopping to rest your poor bodies, you looked 
within to see if your souls were happy. Poor souls ) 

4 



50 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

they were disappointed, and faint with hunger, and 
you said to yourselves, 'Well, there must be some- 
thing in it ; these other fellows seem to be happy, so 
I'll try it again.' At it again you went, and shuffled 
round there till the dawn of the morning, and the 
next day your pockets were minus $100 each, bodies 
worn out with exhaustion from want of sleep, excess, 
and riot, and your souls, what shall I say of them ? 
A more miserable set of fellows can hardly be 
scared up this side of perdition ! So much for your 
pleasure taking and intellectual felicity ! Now the 
repetition of these things, through succeeding years, 
with invariably the same miserable results, ought to 
convince you that you are on the wrong track, and 
that, continuing the same course, your souls will con- 
tinue to be the dupes of disappointment and remorse 
all through your probation of life, and then have an 
eternity in hell for the hopeless repentance of your 
folly." I then, in my sermon for the occasion, 
proved to them that God alone, through the media- 
tion of Jesus Christ, was the source of substantial 
comfort for immortal souls, and that nothing but 
experimental religion could make us really happy 
in this life, or in the world to come. 

I believe that God's Holy Spirit applied the truth, 
and touched many of their hearts, for some of them 
wept like children, and all listened with great ap- 
parent interest. I ask pardon for giving here more 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A STREET PREACHER. 51 

cases of illustration than I intended when I set out. 
They pressed themselves upon me, and I have ad- 
mitted them because of their variety as to time, 
place, and character. 

In conclusion, I will add that, after all, you should 
make up your mind, as a street preacher, to be con- 
sidered and called "a fool" for Christ's sake, and to 
be grinned at by the scorner, gazed at by the mul- 
titude, "sighted" at by gentlemen through hand- 
glasses, double-barreled spy-glasses, and large tele- 
scopes ; to be sworn at by ruffians, and to be slan- 
dered by many you call your friends. But never 
mind, trust in God, and do your duty. Rely for 
success alone, both for the use of means and the 
attainment of desirable ends, upon the merit and 
intercessions of Jesus Christ, and the Divine efficiency 
of the Holy Spirit, and you will praise God through 
eternal ages that you were, by his grace, enabled to 
"preach the Gospel to the poor" in "the streets 
and lanes of the city," and in "the highways and 
hedges." 



52 STBEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEK IV. 

FIRST PREACHING ON THE PLAZA. 

On the third of December, 1849, 1 announced to 
the congregation in " Our little church on the hill," 
that at three P. M. of that day I would preach in 
the open air, on Portsmouth Square, known more 
familiarly as the Plaza. It was regarded by most 
persons present, if not all, as a very dangerous exper- 
iment ; for the gamblers were a powerful and influ- 
ential party in the city, and the Plaza was their 
principal rendezvous, and Sunday the best day of 
the seven for their business. The Plaza was nearly 
surrounded by gambling and drinking houses. The 
gamblers occupied the best houses in the city, and 
had them furnished in the most magnificent style. 
Each house employed a band of the best music the 
country could afford. P. Beeching, a member of our 
Church, being a good musician, was offered thirty 
dollars per night to play in one of them, which, as a 
true man, though poor and out of employment at the 
time, he declined. 

The walls of these houses were hung with splendid 



FIRST PREACHING ON THE PLAZA. 53 

paintings; "the tables" contained "piles" of gold 
and silver; the musicians occupied a high platform 
in the rear end of the saloon; the "needful" was 
served out by " a gentleman of the bar," in one cor- 
ner, near the entrance, where many a jolly circle drank 
to each other's health the deadly draught. These 
places, especially at night, all night, and on Sunday, 
were crowded with moving masses of humanity, of 
every age and complexion. So powerful was this 
class of men in the city, that I do not remember of 
ever hearing of one of them, in those days, being 
arrested, even for murder. Now, should a poor 
preacher presume to go into their midst, and inter- 
fere with their business, by thrilling every house with 
the songs of Zion and the peals of Gospel truth, he 
would be likely to wake up the lion in his lair ! 
When the appointed hour arrived I took with me 
my "sweet singer in Israel," the partner of my youth, 
who has stood by me in every battle ; and down I 
went to the field of action. I selected for my pulpit 
a carpenter's work-bench, which stood in front of 
one of the largest gambling-houses in the city. I 
got Mrs. T. and another lady or two comfortably 
seated, in care of a good brother, and taking the 
stand, I sung on a high key, 

u Hear the royal proclamation, 
The glad tidings of salvation, 



54 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Publishing to every creature, 
To the ruin'd sons of nature, 
Jesus reigns, he reigns victorious 
Over heaven and earth most glorious. 
" Jesus reigns," etc. 

The novelty of the thing had a moving effect. 
The people crowded out of the gambling-houses, and 
gathered together from every direction, as though 
they had heard the cry, " Fire ! fire ! fire !" By the 
time the echoes of the song had died on the breeze, 
I was surrounded by a dense crowd, to whom I intro- 
duced the object of my mission, as follows : " Gentle- 
men, if our friends in the Atlantic states, with the 
views and feelings they entertained of California 
society when I left there, had heard that there was to 
be preaching this afternoon on Portsmouth Square, in 
San Francisco, they would have predicted disorder, 
confusion, and riot; but we, who are here, believe 
very differently. One thing is certain, there is no 
man who loves to see those stars and stripes floating 
on the breeze, (pointing to the flag of our Union,) 
and who loves the institutions fostered under them ; 
in a word, there's no true American but will observe 
order under the preaching of God's word anywhere, 
and maintain it, if need be. "We shall have order, 
gentlemen. I apprehend that for the last twelve 
nionths at least, you have all been figuring under the 
rule of 'loss and gain.' In your tedious voyage 



FIRST PREACHING ON THE PLAZA. 55 

'round the Horn,' or your wearisome journey over 
the Plains, or your hurried passage 'across the 
Isthmus,' and during the few months of your sojourn 
in California, losses and gains have constituted the 
theme of your thoughts and calculations. Now, I 
wish most respectfully to submit to you a question 
under your favorite rule. I want you to employ all 
the mathematical power and skill you can command, 
and patiently work out the mighty problem. The 
question may be found in the twenty-sixth verse of 
the sixteenth chapter of our Lord's Gospel by St. 
Matthew. Shall I announce it ? ' What is a man 
profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul V " 

Every man present was for that hour "a true 
American." Perfect order was observed, and pro- 
found attention given to every sentence of the sermon 
that followed. The warrant for street preaching in 
San Francisco was thus acknowledged, and the pre- 
cedent of good order, under the preaching of the 
word in these "highways," was thus established. 
That sermon proved to be the first of a series of near- 
ly six hundred sermons preached in these streets, the 
confluence of all the various creeds, and isms, and no* 
tions, and feelings, and prejudices of the representa- 
tives of all the nations, Christian and heathen. And 
yet, through the restraining providence of Him who 
sent me, and the good common sense of tlie people of 



56 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

California, I have never lost a congregation, nor suf- 
fered any serious disturbance. The little interrup- 
tions I have had, together with specimen extracts 
from sermons preached, and incidents illustrating 
some of the modes by which truth has been present- 
ed, will be duly noted in the subsequent pages of this 
book. 



CLASS-MEETINGS. 57 



CHAPTEK Y. 

PRIMITIVE CLASS-MEETINGS IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

In the early days of Methodism in this city, I had 
a general class-meeting in the chapel every Sunday 
afternoon, at which there were usually present from 
fifty to ninety persons. There was then but one 
"charge" in the city: no "North," no "South," no 
party differences nor jealousies of any kind. There 
was a constant stream of emigration flowing in 
through our "golden gate" from every part of the 
world. 

The city was small, so that the "royal proclama- 
tion," sounding out from the Plaza every Sunday, 
tapped the drum of nearly every man's ears in town. 
All the Methodist passengers, and multitudes besides, 
immediately showed their faces. After proclaiming 
to them a crucified and risen Jesus, I always an- 
nounced the appointments for preaching and class- 
meeting in our "church on the hill." Hence the 
size and variety of our class-meetings. As a speci- 
men, I extract in substance the following notice from 
my journal, dated Sunday, February 3d, 1850 : 



58 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

"There were in class to-day about ninety per- 
sons, witnesses for Jesus from almost all parts of 
the United States, from Maine to Texas; and from 
Buenos Ayres in South America; from Costa Rica 
in Central America; from Prince Edward's Island; 
from England, Scotland, and Ireland ; from Ger- 
many, Sweden, and Denmark; from North Wales, 
New South Wales, and New Zealand. They all 
uttered distinctly the shibboleth of Methodism, 
and told the same story of 'redemption through 
the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of their 
sins.' 

" A very common inquiry in the mouths of Wes- 
ley an Methodists from England and her colonies was, 
' Do you belong to the Church that Mr. Wesley estab- 
lished in America — the Church of Mr. Asbury and 
Dr. Coke V So soon as they heard the answer, ' Yes,' 
they immediately extended the ' right hand of fellow- 
ship' for another greeting, and, with tearful smiles, 
uttered with great emotion, 'God bless you. It is 
quite an unexpected pleasure to meet you here.' An 
observing stranger, beholding the scene, would have 
said, ' No doubt there is a meeting of two brothers, 
sons of the same mother, who have not seen each 
other for twenty years.' And brothers we were with 
a free good-will, bound together by bonds of mutual 
sympathy and Christian affection stronger than ties 
of "blood, though we had never seen each other be- 



CLASS-MEETINGS. 59 

fore, and probably never would again till the great 
reunion of the blood-washed brotherhood on the 
other side of the river." 

At the class-meeting above referred to, an old gen- 
tleman, with a long, gray beard, by the name of Live- 
sey, (I do not remember that I learned his Christian 
name,) arose and shouted the praise of Jesus, and 
thanked God for full salvation " through the blood of 
the Lamb." He thanked God, also, for Methodist 
class-meetings, which, for thirty years, had always 
been seasons of refreshing to his soul. Thirty years 
ago from that day he had obtained the forgiveness 
of his sins, and had never turned his back on Jesus. 
Heard Dr. Adam Clarke preach a sermon on "Hope" 
" Which hope he had as an anchor of the soul, both 
sure and steadfast." Had always been a firm be- 
liever in the doctrine of holiness as taught by Mr. 
Wesley, and yet, continued he, "strange as it may 
appear, I never obtained an evidence that I was 
wholly sanctified till last Tuesday night. I was 
aboard ship in the harbor out there, and while all 
hands were locked in sleep, and nothing was heard 
but the dash of the waves against the sides of our 
vessel, my soul was waiting upon God, in an unusual 
exercise of prayer and faith in Christ, when the 
power of the Holy Spirit came upon me as I never 
felt it before. I realized an application of the all- 
cleansing blood of Jesus to my heart, and that I was 



60 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

made clean through the Word. My soul has been 
full of glory ever since. "We have pitched a tent on 
the beach in ' Happy Yalley' for prayer-meetings, 
and God is with us there. Glory ! glory be ascribed 
to his holy name !" 

The old man took his seat with subdued utterances 
of " Glory ! glory ! glory be to God !" 

After that meeting I saw his face no more. During 
that week he left the city on business, and word came 
back that his vessel was capsized in the San Joakin 
River, and that the good old brother was drowned. 
Never learning anything to the contrary, and receiv- 
ing additional confirmatory evidence of the truth of 
the rumor, I settled on the conclusion that God, who 
buried the body of Moses in some unknown spot 
" over against Beth-peor," had deposited the body of 
Father Livesey in some one of the mighty eddies of 
the San Joakin River "until the redemption of the 
purchased possession." His spirit, we doubt not, has 
gone to bathe in that "pure river of water of life, 
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God 
and the Lamb." 

Although I had but a very limited acquaintance 
with Father Livesey, his image is very distinctly de- 
fined in my memory, and I believe I shall recognize 
him on the other side of Jordan, when, through the 
great mercy of God, I shall have reached that shore, 
and shall hear from his own lips the mysterious man- 



CLASS-MEETINGS. 61 

ner in which God in his wisdom took him from labor 
to reward. 

At the class-meeting in question many thrilling 
experiences were related. At least six persons bore 
a clear testimony to the all-cleansing efficacy of the 
blood of Jesus applied to their own hearts. 



62 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER YL 

MY FIRST PREACHING IN THE STREETS OF SACRA- 
MENTO CITY. 

I spent the first Sabbath of October, 1850, in Sac- 
ramento City, and had the privilege of preaching 
three times in our "Baltimore California Chapel," 
so called because our kind Baltimore friends framed 
it, and paid for it, and sent it to California. It was 
destroyed by fire about three years since, but the 
Sunday school organized in it in 1849, now (July, 
1856) numbers upward of three hundred scholars. 
In the afternoon of the said Sabbath day, I selected 
a goods-box on the " levee" for a pulpit, and opened 
my commission for the first time in the streets of that 
city. While singing the " royal proclamation," two 
men rode up near to where I stood. I never learned 
their names, but, for convenience, will call them 
Bacchus and Fairplay. Bacchus was pretty drunk, 
and began to yell and make a great ado. Judge W. 
and a few others took hold of his mule's bridle, and 
tried to lead him away. 

" Let me alone," cried Bacchus. 



FIRST PREACHING IN SACRAMENTO CITY. 63 

"Let go his bridle," said Fairplay. "This is a 
public street, and you have no business to interfere 
with him. Let him go, I tell you. If you don't let 
him go I'll see tha* TTr >n nay dearly for it." And 
many other hard threats were uttered by Mr. Fair- 
play. 

The singing, which had b^ftn continued without in- 
terruption, together with the strite and hallooing of 
the drunken man, attracted an immense crowd- 
When the opening hymn was ended, Judge W. and 
his companion had gotten Bacchus off to the distance 
of about thirty yards, and had about equally divided 
the crowd. At that moment I called to the judge 
and his company, saying: " If you please, gentlemen, 
let him go, and I'll take care of him." But they had 
become so zealous in the matter that they seemed de- 
termined to drag him away, and would not let him 
go. By the time I had sung another song of Zion, 
they had gone but a few feet further off, and had half 
the audience, who appeared to be more interested in 
the fate of the drunken man than in the songs of the 
preacher. I then called to them again, and said: 
" Gentlemen, you had better take my advice. If you 
will let that man go, I will send him away in one 
minute. I am surprised at you Sacramento folks. 
Come down to San Francisco, and attend preaching 
on the Plaza next Sunday afternoon at three o'clock, 
and I'll show you how to behave. Men naturally 



64 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

run after an excited crowd, but you have all seen the 
great attraction, a drunken man on a mule. Now, 
let me manage that fellow, and all of you come up 
here ; I've got something to tell you." 

"With that they let Bacchus's mule go. I then ad- 
dressed his threatening, storming companion, Fair- 
play, and said : "I deliver that man up to you, sir ; I 
want you to take charge of him, and lead him away. 
Take good care of him, if you please." 

" Yes, sir," said he, " I will," tipping his hat as he 
made his best bow, and immediately led him away. 
The whole crowd then gathered round me, and I 
said, " Gentlemen, some of my friends here say that 
it is getting too late for preaching this afternoon; that 
by the time I get under way the supper ' gongs' and 
bells will ring, and that you will all run off to sup- 
per. I have some very important things to say to 
you, and I will have done before the tea gets cold. 
Now you had better stay and hear me out, and my 
friends here will find that they are not so good at 
guessing as they thought they were." 

I then announced as my text, " Godliness is profit- 
able unto all things, having promise of the life that 
now is, and of that which is to come." The prelim- 
inary exercises seemed to have raised the temper of 
their minds to an impressible state, and the power of 
God's Holy Spirit manifestly attended the word. 
Many eyes unused to weeping, gave forth their 



FIRST PREACHING IN SACRAMENTO CITY. 65 

briny streams. Good order and great solemnity per- 
vaded the entire assembly. The supper gongs in 
the neighborhood set np a prodigious ringing before 
I had got half through, but I saw none leave. 
All seemed willing to risk the "cold tea." After 
singing the Doxology, all hats off, many strangers 
gathered round me, and wept as they told of their 
sorrows, and inquired about Jesus, the sinner's 

friend. 

5 



66 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEK VII. 

STARVATION IN AN EX-CITY HOSPITAL. 

In the month of February, 1850, the " City Coun- 
cil" made a contract with Dr. S., by which all the 
sick of what had been known as the "City Hospital," 
kept by Dr. M., should be removed to a new hos- 
pital, fitted up by Dr. S., on the corner of Clay and 
Powel streets. Dr. M. said that the term of his con- 
tract with the city for the care of her sick had not 
expired, and that he would not give up the patients, 
and that he would institute suit against the city for 
breach of contract and payment for the care he 
should subsequently give to all the sick he could 
retain in his hospital. The " alcalde" — before we 
had a mayor — sent an order to Dr. M.'s hospital, 
requiring the sick to leave and repair to Dr. S.'s hos- 
pital, otherwise they would get no support or care 
from the city. Dr. M. told them to stay with him, 
and he would see that the city should support them, 
otherwise he would support them himself. More 
than half the patients obeyed the order; the rest re- 
mained in care of Dr. M. As the prospects of Dr. 



STARVATION IN AN EX-CITY HOSPITAL. 67 

M.'s suit against the city declined, his patients who 
were able to walk left hini, and were admitted on 
new "certificates" into Dr. S.'s hospital. On the 
sixth of March I learned that Dr. M. had, on that 
day, notified his patients that he conld keep them no 
longer. Whether from doubt as to the success of his 
suit, or want of funds, or the hope that the city 
authorities would have the patients removed, and 
by thus recognizing them as city patients, strengthen 
his plea for recovering his claims for keeping them, 
I know not ; but he ordered that no more food or 
medicine be given them. The number of his patients 
had at this time been reduced to thirty men. Those 
who were able hobbled out, but there were left still 
seventeen men who were scarcely able to raise their 
heads from their pillows. The names of these were 
Franklin Baxter, James F. Dixon, John RafFsay, 
Charles Johns, Richard Johnson, GuslafF Myers, 
Samuel Howard, Charles Johnson, Joseph M. Gostin, 
C. C. Kindred, William Orr, Thomas M'Donald, 
Thomas Crosby, W. H. Reed, James Thompson, 
John Dixon, and a Frenchman whose name I did 
not get. 

That night we had a meeting of the Executive 
Committee of the "Strangers' Friend Society," which 
had been organized in our chapel on the fifteenth of 
January, 1850, and in which all the Protestant 
Churches in the city were represented, and through 



68 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

which many sufferers were relieved during that very- 
severe winter. At this meeting we appropriated 
the necessary funds for the relief of the said sufferers 
till they could be removed to the other hospital. 
J. B. Bond, son of the late Dr. Thomas E. Bond, of 
precious memory, was appointed a committee to wait 
on the alcalde, and make arrangements for their 
immediate removal. We had with us then an old 
gentleman by the name of Alfred Eoberts, who came 
to California for the avowed purpose of devoting all 
his time to waiting on the sick gratuitously, and who 
spent his time accordingly. He was entirely without 
money himself, and yet made many, if not rich, at 
least comfortable in their destitution. He would ac- 
cept no reward for his services, and yet all his wants 
were supplied. The said funds of the Strangers' 
Friend Society were placed in the hands of Brother 
Roberts,' with orders to go the next morning, and 
supply the patients with whatever they needed, till 
they could be taken to Dr. S.'s hospital. About two 
o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, namely, 
the seventh of March, I went to see Brother Bond, 
to ascertain how he was succeeding with the alcalde, 
and learned from him that his efforts had not been 
successful ; that while the* alcalde had no objection 
to their going to the new hospital, he would not rec- 
ognize their present relation as city patients, for the 
reason that Dr. M. would take advantage of that 



STARVATION IN AN EX-OITY HOSPITAL. 69 

recognition in the prosecution of his suit. Brother 
Bond advised me to get a physician to examine the 
patients, and give me a new " certificate" for each one ; 
and he thought I might prevail on the alcalde to give 
them " permits" to Dr. S.'s hospital, on the new certifi- 
cates, without recognizing them as city patients. 

I employed Dr. Hill, and went to examine the sick 
men, and there learned, to my astonishment, that they 
had had no food or medicine for twenty-four hours ; 
that Dr. M. had forbidden Brother Roberts to bring 
anything into the hospital for the patients. His ob- 
ject seemed to be, to force the alcalde to remove 
them from his hospital, and thus tacitly acknowledge 
them as city patients. He remarked to Roberts that 
" if he allowed them to be fed and cared for in his 
hospital, he never would get rid of them." 

I presented Dr. Hill's certificates to the alcalde, 
and pleaded for the poor fellows 5 lives, but he said he 
would have nothing to do with them while they re- 
mained in that hospital. By this time it was nearly 
night. House room was very scarce in the city in 
those days, and bedding for so many men could 
hardly be found anywhere, except in the hospitals 
and hotels. Hotel keepers would have nothing to 
do with hospital patients. The poor sick men, worn 
down by disease and hunger, seemed to forebode the 
worst that could befall them. Old Captain Baxter 
had braved the thunder of a thousand storms, but 



70 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

now his courage failed. Said lie, " I give up. It's 
no use ; it's no use. I can stand it no longer." 

William Orr was an Englishman, from the West 
Indies. He had large, keen black eyes, and silver 
locks of hair, and looked as venerable as a bishop. 
During his many weary weeks in the hospital, he had 
frequently sent for an old acquaintance, a wealthy 
man from the West Indies; but his "familiar friend, 
in whom he trusted," would not see him. Mr. Orr said 
to me, concerning his friend, "WhenG.'s rich uncle in 
C, who had an estate to be inherited, was in his last 
illness, G. never left his bedside, day or night; and if 
I had property, as I once had, he would come very 
quickly ; but he is afraid I might ask him for assist- 
ance." The old gentleman was generally calm and 
self-possessed, but this strait seemed too much for his 
feelings, and he said, " Well, have I come to this at 
last? Could I ever have believed it? O, Christ, 
have pity upon me in my low estate !" 

Near him lay Thomas Crosby. He had the dropsy ; 
his body was as big as a barrel, and he had occasion- 
al spells of suffocation, from which it seemed impos- 
sible for him to rally ;' but he was triumphant, and 
spent his time in laughing, and weeping, and praising 
God. " O what a precious Saviour I have found," he 
would say. " Glory be to Jesus ! I shall soon be 
done with pain and sorrow ! I shall see Jesus !" I 
believe he was nominally a Roman Catholic, but he 



STARVATION IN AN EX-CITY HOSPITAL. 71 

had received a holy anointing that did for him what 
an ocean of holy water conld not do. 

I mention these cases as specimens of the scene. 
But the question was: " What shall be done to relieve 
these sufferers ?" I obtained from Dr. M. the loan 
of the cots and beds they occupied for one night. I 
rented a house in the neighborhood, and hiring some 
help, we took up the beds with the patients on them, 
" and walked " to our " hired house," where our friend 
Roberts provided everything possible for their comfort, 
and took care of them through the night. The next 
day, by a little maneuvering with the alcalde, to dodge 
a technicality, I succeeded in getting them all into 
Dr. S.'s hospital, where most of them afterward died. 

C. C. Kindred, and I believe two or three others, 
recovered. Captain Baxter often spoke of his pious 
wife, " as good an old woman as ever lived," and how 
for many years she had been praying for him. He 
only wished that he were as good as she. He was 
sincerely penitent. 

James F. Dixon was from Louisiana. He profess- 
ed religion several weeks before his death, and seemed 
to be fully ready. Crosby went home shouting. G. 
M. left the world swearing. Joseph M.. Gustin was 
happy in God, and had a peaceful hour in which to 
die. 

I took great pains to point each of them to " the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," 



72 STEEET PEEACHING- IN SAN FEANCISCO. 

and hope that others of them found their way to that 
healthful clime, where the people never say, " We are 
sick." " There God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes ; there shall be no more death ; neither sor- 
row nor crying ; neither shall there be any more pain ; 
for the former things," among which are those dark 
hospital scenes, shall have " passed away." 



BROADSIDE UPON THE ARMY OF THE ALIENS. 73 



CHAPTER YIIL 

A BROADSIDE UPON THE ARMY OF THE ALIENS. 

On Sunday afternoon, the 5th of May, 1850, I took 
my stand upon the porch of the " Old Adobe," on the 
Plaza, and after singing up a crowd of about a thou- 
sand persons, I announced as my text, the fourth and 
fifth verses of the one hundred and fortieth Psalm. 
" Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked ; 
preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed 
to overthrow my goings. The proud have hid a snare 
for me, and cords ; they have spread a net by the 
wayside ; they have set gins for me." 

Before me lay a vast scene of desolation ; for on the 
day preceding, at four o'clock in the morning, the 
dwellers of our city were aroused from their slumbers 
by the cry, " Fire ! fire ! fire !" It commenced in the 
United States House, on the east side of the Plaza, 
within a few feet of where a fire broke out in De- 
cember, 1849, in the midst of the "gambling hells." 

For an hour or more, nearly everybody seemed to 
stand back aghast, and silently watch the devouring 
element, as it swept block after block of the best 



74 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

buildings in the city. Three entire squares, with the 
exception of three or four houses, were consumed 
within the space of four hours. The loss was various- 
ly estimated at from three to five millions of dollars. 

In the elucidation and application of the text an- 
nounced, the Lord assisted me greatly in exposing 
the snares, and pits, and gins, (gambling-houses, grog- 
shops, and houses of prostitution,) and the wicked 
" and violent " men employed, with all their deceitful, 
attractive appliances and " cords." 

"While special thunder was thus being dealt out, a 
man on horseback gathered a crowd on the opposite 
side of the Plaza, and marched up, as though he in- 
tended to make a charge upon us. But the truth, 
peal after peal, continued to mount the wings of the 
wind, and make the sinners quake in its onward 
flight, so that our opposing general, by the time he 
reached the outer circle of our crowd, was awe-struck, 
and beat a quick retreat, leaving his men in our 
hands, who remained quiet and orderly listeners till 
they were regularly dismissed. We warned the peo- 
ple to beware of those snares, and pits, and wicked 
men, and urged them, as their only sure means of 
safety, to adopt the Psalmist's prayer, " Keep me, O 
Lord, from the hands of the wicked ; preserve me 
from the violent man," etc. The power of the Lord 
was graciously manifest on the occasion. The day of 
eternity will exhibit the fruit. 



THE IRISH SAILOR'S DILEMMA. 75 



CHAPTEE IX. 

THE IRISH SAILOR'S DILEMMA. 

On Sunday night, the tenth of March, 1850, at the 
close of sermon in our "Little Church on the Hill," 
an Irish sailor came to the altar, in presence of the 
congregation, and said he wanted a word with the 
captain, meaning the preacher. I shook his hand, 
and asked him what I could do for him. 

Said he : "I want you to teach me. My mother was 
a poor widow, as are the mothers of a large propor- 
tion of sailors, and she didn't know what to do with 
me. She couldn't take care of me, nor teach me, so 
she sent me to sea when I was a little boy. I have 
been to sea ever since. I am now thirty years old, 
and have niver had ony teaching. Now, I want 
your riverence to teach me." 

"You have learned to use strong drink occasionally, 
have you not?" 

" O, yes ; I takes a wee drap sometimes." 
"And you've learned to swear too, I suppose?" 
" O, yes, sir, I've been a very bad man ; but now I 
wants you to teach me how to be a good man." 



76 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

I then explained to him his wretched condition as 
a sinner, and gave him a few lessons in " the first 
principles of the oracles of God," and urged him to 
fall out with his sins, and renounce them forever, and 
accept of mercy through a crucified Saviour. 

"I thank your riverence for your good advice. I'll 
try from this very hour, and do as you say." 

He turned away and went immediately out of the 
church ; but within two or three minutes he returned, 
and said : 

"Your riverence, you'll pardon me, but I've 
thought of another thing I want you to tell me about. 
I've heard that the Bible says, if a man strike ye on 
one cheek, you must turn round and let him strike the 
other ! ISTow, does it say so ?" 

"That is the doctrine," I replied, "that Jesus 
taught his disciples ; but that is a hard lesson for you 
to learn now. If you will practice the lessons I have 
given you, and pray to God in the name of Jesus 
Christ until you obtain the pardon of all your sins, you 
will love God so much for his great mercy to you, 
that you will not feel like fighting an enemy. You 
will feel that as God has forgiven you so many thou- 
sands of sins, you, too, can forgive those who trespass 
against you. And then, you will be so anxious to 
have everybody get acquainted with Jesus, that you 
will want to pray for your enemies, that they may 
find pardon too." 



THE IRISH SAILOR'S DILEMMA. 77 

"But," said he, "if a man knocks me down to- 
night on my way home, what must I do V 

" You need not distress yourself," I replied ; " if 
you go along and attend to your own business, no- 
body will trouble you. And if you earnestly seek 
God, as you have promised to do, he will take care of 
you, and will not let such a hard trial come upon you 
at the start." 

" But faith, and maybe he might strike me to- 
night on my chake, (cheek;) then I must turn the 
other chake, and let him bang away at that, ah? 
That's hard." 

I tried to impress on his mind the importance of 
learning one thing at a time, and not to perplex his 
mind with the hard lessons at the last of the book till 
he had learned all before them. I presume he "ship- 
ped" the next day. I have not seen him since. 

How many, alas! who have enjoyed all the advant- 
ages of a Christian education, and who have even 
" tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the 
world to come," fall into the Irish sailor's dilemma, 
and take the " wrong horn," moreover, by returning 
evil for evil. 



78 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE X. 

"THEY'LL THINK I'M A THIEF." 

In the fall of 1850, an intelligent Swedish sailor 
was one Sunday afternoon attracted to the Plaza by 
one of the street preacher's songs. The words of 
truth, which fell on his ear on that occasion, so affect- 
ed his heart, that he determined to follow the preach- 
er, and see where he dwelt. He did not then make 
himself known to the preacher, but followed close 
after him till he saw his residence, and the church in 
which he preached. That night he attended preach- 
ing in that church. After sermon an invitation was 
given, as usual, for all persons who desired to seek 
salvation and become acquainted with Jesus, to come 
forward to the altar. A soldier, late from the Mex 
ican war, who had been awakened on the Plaza, im- 
mediately presented himself at the altar as a penitent. 
He was converted to God, and afterward became a 
zealous Christian and a local minister. 

"When our sailor saw the soldier go forward, he 
said to himself, " O, I wish I could go there too, but 
if I go there they'll think I am a thief, and I never 



THEY'LL THINK I'M A THIEF. 79 

stole anything in my life." The adversary of souls 
took advantage of a peculiarity in his education, and 
thus kept him back. 

In Sweden all are taught to read and write, and at 
a certain age, upon a repetition of the Catechism from 
memory, and satisfactory examination as to charac- 
ter, are all admitted into the Established (Lutheran) 
Church. Thus the whole nation receives the ele- 
ments of an intellectual and moral education, and be- 
comes, at least nominally, Christian. Our nation 
might draw some useful practical lessons on educa- 
tion from old Sweden, especially as to the moral 
training of all her children. But when a Swede be- 
comes guilty of theft, the penalty of the law is first 
executed upon him ; he is then conducted to church, 
and is placed by the minister in a conspicuous part 
of the house, where he is questioned by the minister, 
who, after receiving promises of reformation, calls the 
attention of the congregation to him, and bespeaks 
their forgiveness and sympathy, and asks an interest 
in their prayers on behalf of the poor thief. Our 
sailor friend had seen this operation in his father- 
land, and thinking that the same rule applied every- 
where, concluded that if he went to a Methodist altar, 
it would expose him to the unjust charge of theft. 
So he went not, The following Tuesday night he 
attended class-meeting at "our house on Jackson- 
street," Near the close of the meeting he arose and 



80 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

said: "My dear friends, I am blind; I cannot 
see. O, the horrors of this darkness that settles 
down on my soul! I feel that I am a dreadful 
sinner, and I am afraid there is no mercy for 
me ! You who are near to Jesus, please speak to 
him for me. I'm so far away, he won't hear me, but 
if you will speak to him for me, he may hear you, 
and have pity on me." So we all kneeled down and 
spoke to Jesus for him. Two days afterward he 
found Jesus, and became a sincere disciple. We have 
often been much delighted and edified by his experi- 
ence in Divine things, and original expositions of 
Scripture, an example of which I here submit. One 
night, at a meeting convened by a regular weekly 
appointment to talk and pray together on the subject 
of holiness, our Swedish brother arose in his place, 
and said : " My brethren, I was just thinking of what 
Jesus said to Peter: ' Simon, Simon, behold, Satan 
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat : 
but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' 
The Saviour does not tell him that he should not be 
sifted, but gives him to understand that he should be 
sifted, but adds: 'I have prayed for thee, that thy 
faith fail not.' Satan hath desired to sift us also, and 
we may all expect to be sifted, but Jesus hath prayed 
for us. The exercise of faith in him brings holiness, 
and holiness expands the soul, so that when we are 
sifted, we will not fall through the sieve. Without 



THEY'LL THINK I'M A THIEF. 81 

faith and holiness our souls are so contracted and 
dried up, that we cannot bear a sifting, but will go 
through the sieve, and perish with the chaff and base 
grain. We need holiness, brethren, for our own 
safety and happiness. And we need it that we may 
be successful ' workers together with God' in the 
great work of saving sinners. Look at the condition 
of the world lying in wickedness, and at least fifty 
souls go into eternity every minute. In the six 
minutes I have been speaking three hundred souls 
have gone to their long home. At least one hundred 
and fifty have doubtless gone to hell, and what are 
we doing to save poor dying sinners? O, it is a 
wonder that the angels' tears do not fall on us and 
wet our garments." 

6 



82 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER XL 

PREACHING IN A GAMBLING-HOUSE. 

On the twenty -ninth day of January, 1851, a man 
called on me to attend the funeral of Charles B., a 
gambler, who, in a quarrel with a fellow-gambler the 
night preceding, was shot dead. " I think it a pity," 
said the man, " to bury the poor fellow without having 
some religious ceremonies said over him ; and it will 
be a comfort to his friends." 

He was laid out just where he was killed, in the 
" Parker House," on the east side of the Plaza. Tak- 
ing my stand near the corpse, I sung : 

" That awful day will surely come, 
Th 1 appointed hour makes haste, 

When I must stand before my Judge, 
And pass the solemn test. 

" Jesus, thou source of all my joys, 

Thou ruler of my heart, 
How could I bear to hear thy voice 

Pronounce the word, "Depart!" 

" The thunder of that awful word 

Would so torment my ear, 
'Twould tear my soul asunder, Lord, 

With most tormenting fear. 



PKEACHING IN A GAMBLING-HOUSE. 83 

" What, to be banish'd from my Lord, 

And yet forbid to die ? 
To linger in eternal pain, 

And death forever fly ? 

" 0, wretched state of deep despair, 

To see my God remove, 
And fix my doleful station where 

I must not taste his love !" 

The singing and the occasion drew together nearly 
three hundred men, who stood uncovered before me. 
I announced as my text the last two verses of the 
book of Ecclesiastes : " Let us hear the conclusion of 
the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his com- 
mandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For 
God shall bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be 
evil." I then remarked as follows : 

" Gentlemen, I always endeavor, in my public dis- 
courses, to adapt my remarks, so far as I can, to my 
audience. I take it for granted that the greater por- 
tion, if not all of you, are sportsmen ; as such I shall 
address you. 

" ' The conclusion of the whole matter,' the great 
summary of life's duties, what is it ? ' Fear God, and 
keep his commandments.' Do you understand it? 
You are not a set of ignoramuses. I know, from your 
appearance, that you have had early educational ad- 
vantages. Some of you have had pious mothers to 



84 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

instruct you, and many of you, I doubt not, have been 
brought up in the Sabbath school, and you have all 
had the opportunity of reading the word of God, and 
of hearing it preached, from your boyhood to the 
present hour. You cannot plead ignorance. You 
know your duty : to ' keep his commandments.' 
How comprehensive the commandments of God, 
embracing every duty growing out of the relations 
we sustain to God and to each other! Had you given 
your hearts to God, believed in Jesus Christ, received 
the regenerating power of his grace in your souls, and 
were you, to-day, consecrated to his service, what 
happy men you would be ! What an influence you 
might wield for God and his holy cause in California ; 
help to build up good society, and to make this fair 
land a safe and happy home for your wives and 
children. The little boys and girls now growing, up 
in our midst would repeat your names with grateful 
hearts, and call you blessed, when your bodies are 
beneath the ground, and your souls happy in the 
abode of angels and of God. But what are you 
about? What are you doing here in California? 
Look at that bloody corpse ! What will his mother 
say ? What will his sisters think of it ? To die in a 
distant land, among strangers, is bad ; to die unfor- 
given, suddenly, unexpectedly, is worse ; to be shot 
down in a gambling-house, at the midnight hour — O, 
horrible ! And yet this is the legitimate fruit of the 



PREACHING IN A GAMBLING-HOUSE. 85 

excitement and dissipation, chagrin and disappoint- 
ment, consequent upon your business; a business 
fatal to your best interests of body and soul, for time 
and for eternity. 

"Again, look at its influence upon society. The 
unwary are decoyed and ruined. Little boys, charm- 
ed by your animating music, dazzled by the magnif- 
icent paraphernalia of your saloons, are enticed, 
corrupted, and destroyed, to the hopeless grief of 
their mothers, whose wailings will be entered against 
you in the book of God. "Remember that 'for all 
these things God will bring you into judgment.' 'For 
God shall bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be 
evil.' " 

Every gambler listened with profound attention, 
and then formed the largest funeral procession, I be- 
lieve, that I had, up to that time, ever witnessed in 
San Francisco. They returned, I presume, to their 
cards. One of them afterward said to a friend of 
mine: "That Plaza preacher is the strangest man 
I ever saw. He preached B.'s funeral, and said 
everything in this world he could think of against 
us, and yet he did not give us any chance to get 
hold of him !" He then paused a few moments, 
and, turning on his heel, said, " O J — s ! didn't he 
give it to us ?" 

Five years afterward, when I was traveling in 



86 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

the mountains, I was informed of two of the 
same gamblers, who had recently asserted that they 
never had been able to forget nor to shake off the 
impressions of truth made on their minds at B.'s 
funeral. 



CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO IN AN UPROAR 87 



CHAPTER XII. 

CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO IN AN UPROAR. 

Sunday, twenty-third of February, 1851, was a day 
of great excitement in the city. It was ascertained 
that there was a large organized band of thieves and 
robbers in California in those days, operating at the 
same time in different parts of the state, yet all act- 
ing in concert. Men were knocked down and robbed 
in the streets, in the twilight ; and stores and safes 
were broken open almost dayly. The night pre- 
ceding the date above, a respectable clothing mer- 
chant, by the name of Janson, (now of the firm of 
Janson & Bond,) was knocked down behind his 
counter with a " slung shot ;" and it was then 
thought that he could not recover. Two men, by the 
names of "Windred and Stuart, were arrested on 
Sunday morning, and lodged in jail, as the supposed 
perpetrators of the deed. 

The public forbearance, which had been taxed to 
the last point of endurance, now gave way to one 
almost universal burst of indignation. The people 
gathered round the jail to the number of about ten 



88 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

thousand men. I was requested by Windred's wife 
to visit him, as it w T as believed that the prisoners 
would be hung by the people before night. I had 
great difficulty in getting through the crowd; but 
finally succeeded in having an interview with the 
prisoners. Cries of, "Have them out! hang them!" 
etc., filled the air. It was with great difficulty that 
the public indignation could be suppressed, so as to 
give time for an examination and trial of any 
kind; but a doubt as to the guilt of the parties 
arrested, prevailed in allaying the excitement. I 
preached on the Plaza that day to about fifteen 
hundred persons, on the value and indispensable 
necessity of the Bible, believed in, practiced; 
indispensable to our safety and happiness, person- 
ally, collectively, socially, politically; the very 
foundation on which the glorious structure of our 
confederated nation is built ; the chart by which we 
may navigate the stormy sea of life, and gain the 
peaceful haven of eternal rest. What does infidelity 
propose to do for us ? 

Good order and great seriousness prevailed. Win- 
dred afterward broke the jail, and cleared himself; 
Stuart was cleared by the courts. But the " Vigilance 
Committee of 1851" was organized as the result of 
these frequent robberies, and the inefficiency of the 
courts ; and they executed some, and banished others 
to parts unknown. 



CITY HOSPITAL ON FIBE. 89 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CITY HOSPITAL ON FIRE. 

How dreadful, in the stillness of the third watch 
of the night, is the cry , " Fire ! fire ! fire !" and the 
ringing of alarm-bells in all the wards of a large 
city. A livery stable full of horses in flames. 
Shocking! A mother and her infant in the third 
story of a building enveloped in fire ; and the 
returning husband wringing his hands in phrensy. 
What a dreadful scene ! Here, at the dead hour of 
night, a hospital, built of wood, on fire. It will 
consume to ashes in thirty minutes. In it are one 
hundred and thirty men — sick men — many of whom 
are unable to raise their heads from their pillows. 
No time for talk. Rush in, ye friends of suffering 
humanity. Let the strong men carry out the 
patients ; take bed and all. Thus, in a few minutes, 
about half an acre of ground was strewed with 
mattresses, blankets, and dying men. The first 
thing was to get the sick off the damp ground 
on to the " cots," and provide covering to keep them 
from chilling to death in the night air. The next 



90 STBEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

thing was to get some place of shelter. The " Wav- 
erly House," on Pacific-street, distant about half a 
mile, was offered. Many of the sufferers were 
immediately carried thither. But that required too 
much time. Next a two-story house was obtained, 
very conveniently located, but very inconveniently 
arranged. It had a narrow hall through the center, 
with narrow doors opening on each side into the 
rooms. A cot, containing a patient, could not be 
turned out of the hall through these doors ; and 
hence we had to "unship" each patient in the hall, 
in order to twist him in through the doors into the 
rooms. All were rescued from the flames, with 
most of their bedding. Everything else pertaining 
to the hospital was consumed. The fire originated 
in a "house of the strange woman," adjoining the 
hospital. Most of our dreadful fires have started in 
some sink of iniquity. This fire occurred on the 
night of October 30, 1851. 

A number of the patients were men who had 
been blown up, thirty-five hours before, in the ex- 
plosion of the steamer "Sagamore." Some had 
broken limbs, and others were badly scalded. Some 
of them, on Monday, the twenty-eighth, had taken 
passage, in the City of Stockton, on board the steamer 
"Mariposi," to attend the celebration of the " admis- 
sion of California into the Union," which took place 
on Tuesday, the twenty-ninth, in this city. On their 



CITY HOSPITAL ON FIKE. 91 

way down, on Monday night, their boat was "run 
into" and sunk by the steamer "West Point," and they 
narrowly escaped a grave in the dark waters. On 
Tuesday afternoon, after the festivities of the celebra- 
tion, they were blown up in the explosion of the 
"Sagamore," by which many lost their lives. On 
"Wednesday night they were burned out, as above 
stated. My attention was called to an Irish boy, of 
about fourteen years, who lay on the ground in a 
dying condition. He said to his father, who stood by 
him : "Go away, go away from me. But for you I 
would not have come to this. You made me work, 
and drove me along for days, after I was so low with 
diarrhea that I was not able to work, and now I 
must die." The father tried to clear himself of the 
charges brought against him by his dying boy ; but 
others present asserted that the boy told the truth. 
I tried to persuade the boy to forgive his father, and 
seek the forgiveness of his own sins through the merits 
of Jesus. A priest came along and took him in hand. 
What service he rendered him I know not. The boy 
died. As I carried in a poor Dane, who had been 
paralyzed, I saw Isaac Hillman (the razor-strop man) 
with a pot of warm coffee. I thought my Dane was 
dying, but a cup of warm coffee revived him. He 
has been in the City Hospital ever since, now about 
six years. No pen will ever delineate the sufferings 
I have witnessed in the hospital of this city. 



92 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

THE PREACHING THAT KILLED THE PLAZA CLOWN. 

On Sunday afternoon, February 2, 1851, as I stood 
on the porch of the " Old Adobe," and sung up a 
thousand men, a good-looking fellow affected to act 
the clown. It was a clear, cool afternoon, but our 
clown came up with an old umbrella spread over him. 
In his right hand was a lantern, and in his left side- 
pocket a loaf of bread. Thus distinguished, after 
strutting round the circle of the audience, he came 
on the porch, near where I stood, lowered his um- 
brella, and tried to sing. I marked him in my mind, 
but said nothing. My text on the occasion was, 
" Let the wicked forsake his way." The first point 
was, Why should the wicked forsake his way ? 1. Be- 
cause the way of the wicked is exceedingly offensive 
to God. 2. It is most hideous and hateful in itself. 
Familiarity with it, and love for it, might blind and 
deceive us, but did not soften or change its nature. 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
That to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 



PREACHING THAT KILLED THE PLAZA CLOWN. 93 

3. It is utterly ruinous in its effects to every interest 
of our souls, in time, in eternity. These points were 
duly illustrated and applied. One illustration used, 
showing how sin degraded the ennobling faculties 
with which God had endowed our souls, and dis- 
qualified us for the pure associations and spiritual 
delights of heaven, would be regarded by many 
persons as too ludicrous for a religious meeting ; but 
the application was so direct on this occasion that 
the effect was good. It ran as follows : " On a trip 
to San Jose* last week, in the steamer Star, our boat 
ran aground, and kept us there in the mud till after 
midnight. We had as passengers an alderman, a 
doctor, a general, a senator, a captain, and a high 
private, six high-minded, distinguished men, honor- 
ables of the land, noble spirits of the earth ; none of 
your dull, sleepy fellows, you may be sure. (Colonel 
J. C. Fremont was aboard, but would not drink nor 
participate in any revelry.) 

" While detained on the bar, they must have some 
appropriate enjoyment for the evening. The tastes 
and habits of such distinguished men furnish an 
example for all the boys of the land, and we should 
expect from such a source examples pure and eleva- 
ting. Well, how did they spend the evening? The 
general said, ' Steward, have you got any good 
whisky V ' Yes, sir.' ' Well, now, get us up a 
good bowl of whisky punch.* 1 < Ay, ay, sir.' The 



94 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

punch disposed of, they next played a game at cards. 
Then the alderman, who holds a chaplaincy in an 
association in this city, said : l Steward, make us 
some more of that punch ; it is first rate.' The table 
cleared again, they took another turn at the cards. 
Then the captain said, ' Steward, you are the finest- 
looking nigger I ever saw in my life ; give us a little 
more punch.' After they had thus disposed of six 
bottles, they began to be very happy, and it was 
natural that their joyous emotions should find ex- 
pression in song. God has endowed us with this 
talent of music, that by it we might express the 
joyous emotions of the heart, and sing his praise 
as the angels do. Now what do you suppose our 
worthies sung? They sung, over and over again, the 
song of * Old Uncle Ned, with all the hair off his 
head.' Now, with angels and glorified souls, and all 
who have tastes adapting them to the enjoyments 
of heaven, the all-absorbing and soul-thrilling theme 
is the song of the world's risen Redeemer. But the 
highest point which the aspirations of these noble souls 
could reach, was the funeral dirge of a dead ' nigger.'" 
The second division of the discourse exhibited the 
means of escape from the way of the wicked, urged 
by a variety of arguments. I took occasion to give 
the clown his " portion in due season," and when the 
Doxology was sung, he came to me trembling and 
and weeping, and said : 



PREACHING THAT KILLED THE PLAZA CLOWN. 95 

" Can you tell me what I am to do ? I am a gam- 
bler and a drunkard, and a miserable sinner. I had 
a good mother, but she is dead, and I have no doubt 
that she is in heaven to-day. O, I am afraid there is 
no hope for me." 

I took him by the hand and said : " If you go on 
in your present course, you will never see your 
mother again. But if you will quit gambling and 
drinking, and come out from your wicked associates, 
and attend church, read your Bible, and pray, and 
seek religion through the merits of Jesus Christ, you 
will yet be saved, and meet your mother in heaven. 
'Let the wicked forsake his way.' Will you do it? 
Will you do it now ? The Lord in mercy help you." 

The poor fellow was greatly distressed, and I gave 
him a good deal of earnest talk about his soul, but I 
saw him no more. He probably, with half of my 
audience, left the city the next day for the mines. 
There are hundreds of men in the mines who have 
heard no preaching in California except what they 
have heard on the Plaza in this city. 



96 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER XV. 

HELPED TO A TEXT BY THE THIEF THAT STOLE MY 
MONEY. 

On Saturday night, the fifteenth of February, 1851, 
I walked down town a few minutes, in company with 
Mrs. Taylor, on some business, and when we returned 
found that a thief had been into the house, and had 
opened trunks, turned over beds, and done a great 
amount of housework in the short time we had been 
absent. He stole, in money, about forty dollars. 
The next day, on the Plaza, I announced as my text 
the nineteenth and twentieth verses of the sixth 
chapter of Matthew. I read the text thus : " Lay up 
for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through 
and steal. But lay not up for yourselves treasures in 
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, 
and where thieves do not break through nor steal." 
I had a large audience, and they all looked as though 
they thought I had made a mistake ; but I repeated 
the reading gravely: "Lay up for yourselves treas- 
ures upon earth," etc. Many looked at each other, 
and some whispered. 



HELPED TO A TEXT BY A THIEF. 97 

I then remarked, " Gentlemen, many of you were 
taught to read the Bible by your pious mothers, some 
of whom have since died in the faith, and gone home 
to heaven. You are all more or less acquainted 
with the teachings of this blessed book, although I 
am afraid you have not read it much since you came 
to California. The Lord have mercy on you. But 
you all conclude that the preacher made a mistake 
in reading the text. Now, I tell you, one of two 
things is true in regard to the matter: either, first, I 
have read it correctly, or, second, nine tenths of 
you are involved in a most shameful inconsistency of 
life; for you carry out, with the greatest possible 
earnestness, the teachings of the text as I have 
read it. 

What is your business here in California? For 
what have you left your parents and friends, your 
wives and children, and braved the dangers of the 
deep, and of the desert? For what have you endured 
so much privation, and pain, and toil, in the rugged 
mountains of California? Is it all to 'lay up treas- 
ure in heaven, where moth and rust doth not corrupt, 
and where thieves do not break through nor steal?' 
"Not a word of it. That has never entered into your 
purposes or plans. It constitutes no part of the object 
of your toils. All this privation, and peril, and 
suffering, and toil, is for the purpose of laying 
'up treasures on earth, where moth and rust 

7 



98 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and 
steal.'" 

The Spirit of the Lord was graciously present, and 
many sinners quaked under the discourse that fol- 
lowed. 



THE HUMAN HEART. 99 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

THE HUMAN HEART. 

On Sunday, the twenty-seventh of April, 1851, at 
nine o'clock in the forenoon, I preached on the "Long 
Wharf," from the deck of the steamer "Union;" 
text : " The heart is deceitful above all things, and 
desperately wicked." Some of the arguments and 
illustrations used on the occasion were as follows: 
"The human heart may be compared to a jug, and 
why ? Because we can only ascertain the character of 
its contents by what comes out of it. God is looking 
into your hearts now ; but finite vision cannot pene- 
trate the walls of that mysterious source of thought, 
and feeling, and action, which determines a man's 
character in the sight of God. But if we are allowed 
to judge of fountains by their streams, we have only 
to look at the foul streams of iniquity which contin- 
ually flow through our streets to be assured of the 
character of their sources. See what profanity; what 
a desecration of God's holy day; what dreadful havoc 
is being made by that unrelenting slaughterer of 
human kind, the rum-seller; see what desolation is 



100 STKEET PREACHING IK SAN FRANCISCO. 

wrought in the city by the gambling fraternity ; see 
the dreadful prostitution of female virtue ; only 
behold the spirit of lasciviousness and covetousness, 
like the pall of death, spread over thirty thousand 
souls in this city! Our streets are thronged with 
God-hating, Christ-rejecting, pleasure-taking, sin- 
loving men and women. Remember, too, that these 
dreadful manifestations of the wickedness of the 
heart are but partial developments of its deep 
depravity, limited, First: By the restraints which are 
brought to bear on human conduct : social restraints, 
legal restraints, and religious restraints. Second : By 
the barriers of necessity, which circumscribe man's 
ability to execute the ' devices of his heart.' Look, 
for example, at that rum-seller. The house in which 
he lives, and from which are the issues of death, once 
belonged to a man of property and respectability. 
He lived there with his happy family ; but the wily 
* gentleman of the bar' took advantage of the moral 
imbecility of his victim, just as the highwayman 
takes advantage of the physical imbecility of the man 
he murders and robs. He has long since sent his 
victim's shattered, bloated carcass to a drunkard's 
grave, and his soul to a drunkard's hell. His family 
are in' the ' poor-house,' dayly shedding fountains of 
tears more bitter than death. ISTow this is the busi- 
ness that man on the corner there follows. And why 
does he not treat every family so? Because he cannot. 



THE HUMAN" HEART. 101 

His heart is guilty of the blood of every man he 
would decoy, if he could. So with the gambler ; so 
with the swindling extortioner; and that swearer just 
out there in the street, who looks up and blasphemes 
the name of God, would, if he had the power, hurl 
him from his throne to-day. Yet such is the deceit- 
fulness of the human heart, that, with all these dia- 
bolical volcanic fires pent up within, and the frequent 
outbursts of smoke, and flame, and flood, which spread 
moral desolation through the earth, and fill the world 
with woe ; the possessors of such hearts will stand up 
in the temple of God, and, with all the apparent 
sanctimoniousness of an angel, say: 'God, I thank 
thee that I am not as other men.' " 



102 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

THE INDEPENDENCE BELL. 

In the afternoon of Sunday, April 27, 1851, I had 
a large audience on the Plaza, to whom I said : "My 
text is recorded on the old Independence Bell, in the 
State House in Philadelphia, and reads as follows: 
' Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, to all the in- 
habitants thereof. Lev. xxv, 10. By order of the As- 
sembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State 
House in Philadelphia. Pass & Stow. Philadelphia, 
A. D. 1753.' Young America, just beginning to 
scribble, thus wrote his name on that old bell, twenty- 
three years before the tocsin of war called him forth 
to try his manly muscles in mortal combat with a 
giant foe. 

" On the evening of the great atonement of 
the Jews, the Jubilee year, that proclamation, 
sounding from every hill-top in Palestine, and echo- 
ing through every vale from Dan to Beersheba, 
thrilled with gladness the hearts of millions of 
Abraham's sons and daughters. It was under 
the inspiration of the Bible doctrine contained 



THE INDEPENDENCE BELL. 103 

in this text, that John Hancock and his compatriots 
were enabled, with steady hand, and a determination 
of purpose stronger than death, to sign that immortal 
document, the ' Declaration of Independence.' This 
was the theme that clothed our fathers with that un- 
conquerable courage and zeal, which carried them 
through a seven years' struggle on fields of carnage 
and blood, till throughout the united colonies, 
from Maine to South Carolina, the jubilee trump 
sounded. 

" Behold, to-day, the results of an appropriate, 
practical application of Bible truth, even politically 
and civilly considered ! But the institution of the 
Jubilee typifies a spiritual Jubilee, which, in its 
provisions and results, transcends all earthly good 
and earthly glory, as much as the duration and 
developments of eternity transcend the duration 
and developments of time. Our divine Joshua pro- 
claims : ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be- 
cause he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel 
to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and 
recovering of sight to the blind : to set at liberty 
them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable 
year of the Lord.' And he hath sent forth his heralds, 
charging them to ' Go into all the world, and preach 
the Gospel to every creature.' This is the character 
in which I appear before you to-day. 



104 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" ' Sent by my Lord, on you I call ; 
The invitation is to all: 
Come all the world ! come, sinner, thou ! 
All things in Christ are ready now. 

" ' Come, all ye souls by sin oppress'd, 
Ye restless wand'rers after rest; 
Ye poor, and maim'd, and halt, and blind, 
In Christ a hearty welcome find.' " 



KING DAVID'S FOOL. 105 



CHAPTEK XVIII. 

KINO DAVID'S FOOL. 

My Plaza text for Sunday, March 2, 1851, was : 
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no 
God." Some of my remarks on that occasion ran as 
follows : 

" Here is a watch my father gave me when I was 
a boy," holding it in my hand. "He bought it from 
an old bachelor by the name of Walkup, who, of course, 
recommended it to be a first-rate watch. I am not 
acquainted with its early history, but if I were to tell 
you that this watch had no maker, that some happy 
chance formed the diiferent parts of its ingenious 
machinery, and that another chance put them to- 
gether with the very useful design of a time-piece, you 
would call me a fool. It is said that Sir Isaac New- 
ton had a friend who professed to be an atheist. Sir 
Isaac, anticipating a visit from his friend, placed a 
beautiful new globe where he knew it would arrest 
the attention of his visitor. "When the atheist saw it, 
he exclaimed with admiration, c Sir Isaac, who made 
this beautiful globe?' ' O, it was not made at all, 



106 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

sir !' answered the great philosopher, with a signifi- 
cant glance at the confused eye of his friend. The 
argument was unanswerable. And if we cannot be- 
lieve that a mere globe of wood, with certain lines, and 
colors, and figures, representing the earth's surface, 
could come by chance, how can we imagine that this 
mighty globe itself, with its continents and seas, and 
various laws, to say nothing of the vast universe of 
suns and systems which occupy the immeasurable 
expanse of space, could be the result of chance ? To 
adopt such a conclusion, there is surely no such fool 
in this intelligent audience. But remember, David's 
fool was not such. He probably, like some fools en- 
countered by Jesus, in the days of his incarnation, 
' drew nigh to God with his lips, and honored him 
with his mouth,' but i said in his heart, There is no 
God.' The Holy Spirit was looking at him, and heard 
his heart say it, and moved the royal Psalmist to pen 
it down, and so it stands recorded to-day. 

"The Holy Spirit is looking at each one of you 
now, and listening to every pulsation of your moral 
heart, and were he now to reveal what has there 
passed this day, what shocking revelations he would 
make ! It is not by the profession of the mouth, but 
by the conduct of men, that we are to learn the 
orthodoxy of their hearts. A miserable gambler 
said to me but a short time since, 'When I came to 
California I had but twenty-five cents; but I had 



KING DAVID'S FOOL. 107 

good luck playing cards, and by and by set up a 
" monte-table," and, I thank God, I have been very 
successful.' He said he was a member of the Roman 
Catholic Church, and professed to be very devout. 

"A wretched rum-seller over here on Jackson- 
street, had filched the pockets of a poor fellow, 
wrecked his constitution, blighted all his hopes for 
time and eternity, unstrung his nervous system, and 
driven him into delirium tremens; and when his poor 
victim was dying, the tender-hearted rum-seller, full 
of sympathy for the suffering, sent in haste for me to 
come and pray for the poor man. 

"Why, these gamblers round the Plaza here, when- 
ever they shoot a fellow, go right off for a preacher 
to pray over their dead. One who came for me to 
preach at the funeral of C. B., who had been shot the 
night before just there in that large saloon, said, 'We 
thought it would be a pity to bury the man without 
some religious ceremonies. It will be a comfort to 
his friends, too, to know that he had a decent Chris- 
tian burial.' 

" I have buried three such within as many months. 
They profess a belief in God, but their conduct gives 
the lie to their profession. 

"What is the swearer's notion of God? Even to- 
day my ears have been saluted with the horrid oath. 
They do not believe in their hearts that there is a 
God, and but use his name in ironical contempt, or 



108 STREET PREACHING- IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

else they have so degraded a notion of God as to 
treat him worse than they would treat a dog. They 
would not think of so treating a fellow-man. 'The 
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,' bnt 
every pulsation of that heart gives the lie to the blas- 
phemous assertion. This system of bones, and sinews, 
and muscles, and arteries, and veins, and nerves, so 
fearfully and wonderfully made, proclaims, ' There is 
a God.' And this still more mysterious soul, which 
occupies this highly- wrought tenement, proclaims yet 
more loudly, ' There is a God.' 

" See him in nature. See him in his providential 
government over men. See him as revealed in his 
word. See his mercy — his justice. We belong to 
him. To him shall we answer for all the sayings of 
our hearts. Do you believe in him? Do you obey 
him ? Do you love him ? Are you on friendly terms 
with him to-day ? If not, ' "We pray you in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God.' Will you sue for 
pardon and reconciliation now?" etc. 

After the benediction, a stranger spoke out, saying, 
" Gentlemen, you all know how laboriously and suc- 
cessfully Father Taylor labors here on the Plaza 
from Sabbath to Sabbath. ISTow I move that we take 
up a collection. I will not urge you to give ; I know 
you are all ready." 

" Pass along the hat," said one. 

" Let it come this way," said another. 



KING DAVID'S FOOL. 109 

'Stop, stop," said I. "Gentlemen, I am much 
>bliged for your kind feelings, but I never allow a 
collection to be taken up out doors for my benefit. 
I have preaching every Sabbath twice in the church 
on Powell-street, and all who are so disposed can 
give there; but you will please do nothing of the 
kind here. I cannot have my street preaching tram- 
meled by collections." 

I have now preached (July, 1856) about six hun- 
dred times in these streets ; have occasionally taken 
up collections for poor men and for building the 
Bethel, (I collected $400 at one time on the Plaza 
for the Bethel,) but have never taken up one collec- 
tion for my own benefit, though often in need. My 
reason is, that in the streets I proclaim a free Gospel, 
" the royal proclamation," to heathens and Christians, 
to Jews and Gentiles, to Catholics and Protestants, to 
inhabitants of every nation, and I am unwilling to 
furnish ground for any of these to impugn my mo- 
tives, or to say, " He can afford to sing and preach 
in the streets when he gets a good collection every 
time." 

The Lord, in pity, remember thy unworthy serv- 
ant in the " day of thy coming." 



110 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

THE TIME THE LORD DID NOT "KEEP THE CITY," 
AND WHY— THE GREAT FIRE. 

At eleven o'clock in the night of Saturday, May 
3d, 1851, a fire broke out in our city, which raged till 
nine o'clock in the forenoon of Sunday, the fourth. It 
was the most destructive fire by which this city has 
ever been visited. The loss was variously estimated 
from twelve to twenty millions of dollars. Several 
hundred passengers had just arrived on the steamship 
New Orleans, on the evening the fire occurred, and 
the city was filled with strangers besides, so that it 
was impossible to tell how many persons perished in 
the conflagration. The ashes, it was believed, of six 
men were found in the ruins of T.'s iron building. It 
was said that five of them rushed in to rescue a sick 
man, who was confined to his bed inside, and when 
they got back to the door, it was so warped by the 
heat that they could not open it, and the fire in the 
street was so great that it was impossible to relieve 
them. And there they perished, at the threshold of 
life. 



THE r GREAT FIRE. Ill 

• Many of the streets were planked, and on each side 
were wooden sewers, which served as flues to conduct 
the lire, and greatly facilitated its destructive progress 
through the city. Our " Old Adobe" escaped, and 
at the appointed hour for preaching, I stood in my 
place on the " porch." It appeared to be a very un- 
propitious time for collecting an audience. The peo- 
ple were running to and fro, under a high pressure 
of confused excitement, and many were busy in col- 
lecting together their little savings from the fire, 
many tons of which were scattered in tangled confu- 
sion all over the Plaza. I, however, threw out, amid 
the smoke, and dust, and noise, of the vast field of 
desolation which was spread out before me, one of 
Zion's sweetest songs, and drew together about one 
thousand men. My text on the occasion was, " Ex- 
cept the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that 
build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watch- 
man waketh but in vain." " Are we to understand, 
my hearers, from this text, that it is unnecessary to 
employ builders or watchmen ? Certainly not. But 
having them, and using all the appliances necessary 
to build up and preserve our city, we must, never- 
theless, rely, for success and safety, upon the merciful 
Providence of God. 'Except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the 
Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in 



112 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" When we consider the numerous causes and oc- 
casions of fire, the millions of smoking cigar stumps 
scattered over the city, and how many thousands are 
recklessly careless in the use of fire, and how many 
hundreds of malicious spirits, who are, from motives 
of revenge or a desire to pillage, always ready to fire 
the city, the wonder is, that the city is not fired every 
week. And why is it not ? Because the Lord keeps 
the city. He overrules these occasions, either by 
preventing their application, or by arresting their 
progress in time to save the city. It is not necessary 
for him to work miracles to effect this. Having ab- 
solute control of all the forces and agencies in the 
universe, save the internal moral exercises of the 
human will, he can bring his purposes to pass by 
any of the agencies of human care and precaution, or 
by the so-called accidents which parenthetically inter- 
sperse the whole drama of life. As I walked out the 
other day, I very opportunely saw the kindling of a 
great fire, by the careless throwing of embers among 
shavings ; but for the accidental discovery, that fire 
might have swept over the city. ' Well,' says one, ' if 
that is the doctrine, and the Lord is the keeper of the 
city, how is it that our city is now burned up, scarcely 
anything left but the smoking ruins of her greatness of 
yesterday V Let us inquire whether there may not be 
reasons why the Lord should, at certain times, make an 
exception to this general rule of his preserving provi- 



THE GREAT FIRE. 113 

dence. As we are rational and moral agents, he deals 
with us on moral principles. Those reasons, therefore, 
must be sought by an examination of our conduct, as 
subjects of his moral government. The Lord has 
been very kind to us in the past ; kind to us individ- 
ually, and kind to our city collectively. This you 
cannot deny. But how have we requited his kind- 
ness? Just look abroad through the city, as it was 
yesterday. See what a whojesale desecration of 
God's holy day. As many as seven hundred places of 
business are open in this city every Sabbath day. 
Look at the rum traffic and its deadly effects; think 
of the fornication and adultery practised in the city ; 
hundreds of men, too, frequenting those haunts of 
infamy, who have confiding wives and interesting 
children at home. Do you imagine that God is an 
indifferent spectator of these diabolical scenes? 
Listen to the horrid oaths which continually ring 
through our streets. I said to a swearer this morn- 
ing : ' Be patient, my friend, and don't swear about 
it.' 'Patience! patience! talk about patience,' said 
he, 'and the city burning up!' v 'Well, sir,' said I, 
' but what good does it clo to swear about it ?' ' Ah,' 
said he, 'it does to let the gas off.' K"ow what kind 
of gas is that which smokes and bubbles in the hearts 
of so many thousands of men in this city, the ' letting 
off' of which consists in the foulest blasphemy against 
God ? It is this awful gas, my friends, which has 

8 



114 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

kindled and fed the flames which have consumed the 
city. It is the gas of carnal enmity against God, 
manifesting itself in so many horrid forms in our 
midst, that ' breaks the bands of God asunder, and 
casts his cords from us.' And when we break the 
moral ' bands' that bind us to God, we, by the same 
violence, break the providential ' bands ' that bind 
God, in the plenitude of his mercy and providential 
care, to us. Let the citizens of San Francisco 
beware ! God is dealing with them. This disaster, 
dreadful as it appears to be, is but a premonition of 
'judgment to come,' in consequence of their sins. It 
is also a disciplinary measure for the correction and 
improvement of our morals. Now, if you wish to 
become loyal subjects of our Divine Sovereign, and 
rebuild the city on a permanent and safe basis, you 
must have that dreadful gas removed from your 
hearts. The only remedy by which it can be neutral- 
ized and extinguished is the blood of the crucified 
Jesus. The fire could not be put out last night 
because of the scarcity of water, and the inefficiency 
of the means to apply it ; but ' the fountain opened 
in the house of David for sin and uncleanness,' is 
abundant, free, and available. 

" ' Its streams the whole creation reach, 

So plenteous is the store ; 
Enough for all, enough for each, 

Enough for evermore/ 



THE GREAT FIRE. 115 

" 'The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us 
from all sin,' and the Holy Ghost is here to-day to 
apply it to your hearts. Will you accept of the 
remedy? Will you?" 

The application of the discourse and the exhorta- 
tion that followed were, we believe, attended by the 
unction of the Holy Spirit. The occasion throughout 
was one of great solemnity. Many hearts throbbed 
with emotion, and many eyes were filled with weep- 
ing. "Except the Lord" apply the word, they labor 
in vain that preach it. 



116 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEK XX. 

ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES. 

On Sunday, the fifth of November, 1851, 1 preached 
at nine o'clock in the morning on the Long Wharf, 
from the character and conduct of the patriarch 
Jacob. At half past ten I preached on Pacific "Wharf, 
from " Jacob wrestling with the angel of the cove- 
nant." While preaching on this occasion, the steam- 
ship "California" arrived. Among her passengers 
were T. H. Pearne and lady, missionaries, en route 
to Oregon. Many passengers arriving in those days 
had the impression that they would hear no preach- 
ing in California ; then to hear, the first thing, even 
before they disembarked, the appeals of Gospel truth 
was, to many, a matter of inexpressible surprise. 

That afternoon I preached on the Plaza, from 
Hosea iv, 2 : " By swearing, and lying, and killing, 
and stealing, and committing adultery, they break 
out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the 
land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein 
shall languish." I was enabled, through the unction 
of the Holy Spirit, to deal very plainly with all the 






ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES. 117 

characters implicated by the text. I learned from 
Brother Pearne, who was a hearer at our Plaza 
meeting, that A. Bland, my brother-in-law, a mis- 
sionary to California, his wife and child, were on the 
steamship Republic, then due. I soon afterward 
heard that the Republic was wrecked on a sunken 
reef about twenty miles from the "Golden Gate," 
and that the rush of water through the leak had put 
out the fires, and that she was in great danger of 
going down, with a large freight of human beings. 
I waited the news of the fate of my friends with no 
ordinary degree of solicitude. The steamship Cali- 
fornia was immediately dispatched for the relief of 
the wrecked vessel, which, though leaking very 
badly, was kept up by the pumps and buckets used 
by the passengers, till she was towed in on Monday 
afternoon. The passengers, though frightened and 
weary, were all safely landed. How many souls 
have been wrecked just outside the harbor of eternal 
blessedness ! 

" Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly, 
While the nearer waters roll, 

While the tempest still is high ; 
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, 

Till the storm of life is past ; 
Safe into the haven guide, 

receive my soul at last." 



118 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

THE WHISKY-BARREL PULPIT. 

In September, 1851, one Sabbath morning, on 
Pacific-street Wharf, I asked Captain L. for permission 
to preach from the deck of his steamer, but he re- 
spectfully declined granting the favor, saying, " There 
are some men at work aboard, and I am afraid it 
would interrupt them." I then took a position close 
by, so that I could give the captain and his men 
" a portion in due season," and to the crowd as well. 
I happened to get for my pulpit on that occasion 
a barrel of whisky, (I have preached probably a hun- 
dred times on the heads of liquor barrels,) which 
stood on the wharf, and prefaced my discourse by 
saying, "Gentlemen, I have for my pulpit to-day, 
as you see, a barrel of whisky. I presume this is the 
first time this barrel has ever been appropriated to 
a useful purpose. The c critter' contained in it will 
do me no harm while I keep it under my feet. And 
let me say now to you all, to sailors and to landsmen, 
never let the 'critter' get above your feet. Keep it 
imder yowfeet, and you have nothing to fear from it." 



THE PORK-BARREL PULPIT. 119 

At the close of the sermon the congregation gave 
me a collection of one hundred and twenty dollars 
toward the erection of our " Bethel." 



THE PORK-BARREL PULPIT. 

The Sabbath following I occupied as a pulpit, at 
the same place, a barrel of pork. I remarked, as 
I balanced myself on the head of the barrel, " I see 
my pulpit of last Sabbath, the barrel of whisky, is 
gone, and I am very much afraid that my timely 
warning, as is too often the case, was not heeded, 
and that its contents have ere this gone down the 
throats of some of our fellow-citizens. I have in its 
stead to-day, as you see, a barrel of pork, literally 
less of the spirit and more of the flesh. But this is 
God's house while I here dispense his word, as really 
as the spot where Jacob slept and dreamed, and saw 
the ladder that reached up to heaven. God was 
in that place, and God is here this morning. Jacob's 
God is looking at you now. O that the Spirit of 
his grace may this hour subdue your fleshly lusts, 
while I deliver to you a message from him who 
sent me." 

My text on this occasion was from Proverbs, third 
chapter, thirteenth and fourteenth verses, " Happy is 
the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that get- 
teth understanding. For the merchandise of it is 



120 STEEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain 
thereof than fine gold." On which I made the fol- 
lowing remarks : 

" This inestimable treasure wisdom, what is it ? 
* She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her,' 
verse eighteenth. The very 'tree of life,' from which 
our first parents were driven, and from which they 
were debarred because of sin, by the ' cherubim and 
a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the 
way of the tree of life.' It is the favor of God. It is 
reconciliation through the blood of Jesus. It is ex- 
perimental religion. We do not possess this treasure 
naturally, nor do we acquire it intuitively, nor with- 
out earnest efibrt. Jesus has propitiated the throne 
of Divine justice, and opened the gateway to the tree 
of life, and says to a world of outsiders, ' Seek to 
enter in at the strait gate.' i Strive to enter in at 
the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, shall 
seek to enter in, and shall not be able.' If we would 
find i wisdom,' we must ' seek for her as for hid 
treasures.' Many of you are just down from the 
mines. You have ' made your pile,' and now you 
are on your way with hearts beating with hopeful 
emotion, to see the friends you love. But if you 
should find a watery grave on your voyage, how you 
will need religion. Above all things else, be sure to 
seek and lay in a good supply of it before you embark. 
But we were going to ask you how you got your 



THE PORK-BARREL PULPIT. 121 

gold. Did you not have to seek for it, and dig deep 
and toil hard to get it ? You were impelled, in your 
diligent search, by desire, and hope, and faith, and 
determination, and patience. So must you seek 
if you would obtain religion. True, our ■ works' do 
not constitute a meritorious ground of our accept- 
ance with God, but an indispensable condition, on 
which God, for Christ's sake, graciously imparts sal- 
vation to our sin-stricken hearts. The miner says, 
( Happy is the man that findeth gold, and gets ready 
to go home to his friends.' We say, upon the 
authority of God, 'Happy is the man that findeth 
wisdom,' and gets ready to go to his home in heaven, 
to meet his friends who have gone before him. 
Again, i Happy is the man that getteth,' or, as it 
reads in the margin, ' that draweth out understand- 
ing.' As ' wisdom' is the attainment of the best 
ends, by the use of the best means, so c understand- 
ing' is the fruit and experience of wisdom. When a 
soul is i regenerated,' it receives the principle of spir- 
itual life, as in natural generation it received the 
principle of natural life. JSTow the development of 
this principle of spiritual life in the heart, and its 
corresponding manifestation in the life, is what is 
meant by ' drawing out understanding.' ' Happy is 
the man' that retains and develops his religion. 
Kow some of you, after having made your ' pile,' 
have been decoyed into the gambler's hell, and have, 



122 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

in one short hour, lost the labor of years. So many 
of you, who were once so happy as to find wisdom, 
having failed to draw out understanding, have been 
decoyed by the god of this world, and robbed of your 
treasure. California is full of backsliders, and they 
are the most miserable men, and many of them the 
meanest men in this land. They are of two classes : 
first, those who, before they left home, adopted that 
fallacy of the devil, that 'It is impossible to live re- 
ligion in California, and therefore it is no use to try.' 
One old apostate said : ' God don't hold any man to 
answer for his conduct, after he crosses the Missouri 
River.' And thousands have staked the interests of 
their souls on that lie. Another, who, it is said, was 
a preacher once, said : c I knew I could not carry 
my religion through California, so when I left my 
home in Missouri, I hung my religious cloak on my 
gate post, till I should return.' Thus, if he ever had 
any religion, he threw it away before he started for 
California. This is the worst class of backsliders. 
They backslide in principle, deliberately. 

"The second class embraces those who came to 
California fully determined to live to God ; but they 
wandered away into the mountains, where they 
were cut off from all the privileges of the sanctuary, 
and association with Christians. There they became 
feeble, got discouraged, and were finally 'entangled 
and overcome.' Poor fellows, prisoners of war! The 



THE PORK-BARREL PULPIT. 123 

Lord have mercy upon them ! Jesus is looking after 
you, my backslidden brother, as he looked after 
apostate Peter. He is very anxious to save you ; and 
he will save you, if you let him. Will you ? The 
backsliders of both classes are unhappy : the whole 
of them. But, blessed be God, we have the men 
here in California, who, in opposition to flame, and 
flood, and death, have ' drawn out understanding,' 
and they are i happy.' 'The merchandise,' or ex- 
change value and circulation of this article, namely, 
developed religion, 'understanding drawn out,' is 
i better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain 
thereof than fine gold ;' even ' fine Yuba gold.' By 
the 'gain of gold, and the merchandise of silver,' you 
may make sunshine friends ; supply the wants of 
your mortal bodies, which will be dead and rotten in 
a few years; gratify your fleshly lusts, which will, 
when the sources of all gratification are cut off, as 
they will be when your tabernacle is taken down, 
like so many vultures, prey upon your deathless 
spirit forever. Your money, to be sure, may be 
applied to useful purposes. It will buy you a cabin 
ticket to New- York ; but it will not secure you 
even a steerage passage across death's dark flood. It 
will give you position among the honorables of the 
land ; but it will not secure you the favor of God 
and good angels. It will build a church, if you 
please ; but it will not buy your soul a place in 



124 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

heaven. A man who came to California in 1848, 
and made a fortune, laid him down, not long since, in 
"Washington-street, in this city, and died. He had 
plenty of silver and gold ; but, as he informed me, 
was destitute of religion. When dying, he said: 
'It is very hard. I have just got ready to live; and 
now I must die.' What a miserably poor man he 
was. An old colored man, from Baltimore City, died 
recently, in the City Hospital, on Pacific-street, but a 
few blocks from this spot. He was a very homely 
old man, and suffered intensely with the 'king's evil,' 
and I don't know how many other evils, and had not 
one red cent with which to bless himself; but he had 
'wisdom,' and was 'happy.' I saw him frequently, 
and every time he was happy. A short time before 
his death I administered to him the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, after which he clapped his bony black 
hands, and shouted the praise of God. Said he : 
'The Lord only knows how I have been pinched 
with poverty, and what this poor body has suffered ; 
but I am rich. I have an inheritance in heaven, 
glory be to God ! I shall soon be released from these 
sufferings, and go to my home in heaven;' and then 
the good old 'darkey' sang, just as the colored people 
alone can sing : 

" ' A home in heaven ! as the sufferer lies 
On his bed of pain, and uplifts his eyes 



THE PORK-BARREL PULPIT. 125 

To that bright home, what a joy is given, 

"With the blessed thought of his home in heaven. 

" ' A home in heaven ! when our pleasures fade, 
And our wealth and fame in the dust are laid; 
And strength decays, and our health is riven, 
We are happy still with our home in heaven. 

" 'A home in heaven! when the faint heart bleeds, 
By the Spirit's stroke, for its evil deeds ; 
O ! then, what bliss, in that heart forgiven, 
Does the hope inspire of a home in heaven. 

"'A home in heaven! when our friends have fled 
To the cheerless gloom of the rnoldering dead; 
"We wait in hope on the promise given, 
We will meet up there in our home in heaven.' 

"I wish you could have seen how his big eyes 
glistened with rapturous delight, as he thus sung of 
his 'home in heaven.' Religion gave him a royal 
heirship in the kingdom of glory. 

"The truth of our text he proved in life, confirmed 
it by his triumphs in death, and is now realizing it 
in the fruition of a blessed immortality in heaven. 

" Now, my friends, you see the prize ; you have 
heard the price ; if you like the terms, close to-day. 
Will you do it? Will you do it now f ' Behold ! now 
is the accepted time. Behold! now is the day of 
salvation.'" 

A French grape dealer, and a Spanish pear and 
orange seller, had each a movable stand on which 



126 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

they exposed their fruits for sale wherever they 
thought they could get the greatest number of cus- 
tomers. Seeing me draw together great crowds of 
men each Sabbath, they thought it would be a fine 
thing for them to patronize street preaching; and 
while I was administering to my audience "the bread 
of life," they would improve the repast by adding a 
little good fruit. So one bright Sunday morning in 
November, 1851, when I went to my appointment 
on Pacific Wharf, there they were, in front of my 
"barrel pulpit," the two stands side by side, with 
their fruit arranged in the most inviting style. I 
mounted the "barrel" without appearing to notice 
them, and sung up a congregation. While I was 
singing the first verse of " The Old Family Bible," a 
man cried out, " Where did you get your Bible ?" 
Just at that moment I was ready to commence the 
second verse, and sung to him, 

" ' The Bible, the volume of God's inspiration. 1 

"That's where I got it, sir; by the inspiration of 
God," and then sung on. 

" ' At morning and evening could yield us delight, 
And the prayer of our sire was a sweet invocation, 

For mercy by day, and for safety through night. 
Our hymns of thanksgiving with harmony swelling, 

All warm from the hearts of the family band, 
Half raised us from earth to that rapturous dwelling 

Described in the Bible that lay on the stand. 



THE PORK-BARREL PULPIT. 127 

uc The old-fashion'd Bible, the dear, blessed Bible, 
The family Bible, which lay on the stand.' 

" Had you been blessed, my friend, with such a sire, 
and had you been trained in such a family band, you 
would not ask me where I got the Bible;" and 
sung on : 

" ' Ye scenes of tranquillity, long have we parted, 

My hope's almost gone, and my parents no more ; 
In sorrow and sadness, I live broken-hearted, 

And wander unknown on this far-distant shore. 
Yet how can I doubt a dear Saviour's protection, 

Forgetful of gifts from his bountiful hand ? 
O let me with patience receive his correction, 

And think of the Bible that lay on the stand. 

" ' The old-fashion'd Bible,' " etc. 

The audience now stood in a circle about twenty 
deep, as close as possible, and the fruit dealers in the 
center. I then said, " Grapes, pears, and oranges ! 
Gentlemen, you must not suppose that I have any 
interest in this Sunday traffic in calling you together 
around it. I hope you will not patronize these Sab- 
bath-breakers. You are not so grape-hungry but 
that you can wait till to-morrow, and then during the 
six days in the week lay in a supply for Sunday. 
These fellows have set up here, expecting to make a 
fine speculation out of my audience this morning; 
but they will find that they have brought their fruit 
to the wrong market." 



128 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

The fruit dealers by this time would gladly have 
got out of the range of our artillery, but they were 
completely environed ; and I gave them grapes gra- 
tuitously, and pared them down to the smallest point 
my pity would allow me. I then preached from 
Jacob's dying address to his sons,- and a blessed 
season we had. 

The poor Spaniard and his French neighbor, like 
the Shechemites of old, did not understand the re- 
fined arts of modern times for making religion sub- 
servient to mercenary purposes. They, however, did 
not miss it so much as did a grocer I heard of, who, 
for a long time, paid a high pew-rent in a certain 
church in this city, and afterward complained, in his 
simplicity, saying, "Now, for so many months I 
have paid my pew-rent in that church, and I and 
my wife always went in just as the congregation 
turned to face the choir, so that I know they could 
not help seeing us, and I don't believe that it has 
benefited my business one cent. Isot one of them 
comes to buy at my store." 

The Lord pity such miserable sinners, who make a 
" stalking horse" of religion. The possessor of gains 
thus acquired, will have more trouble with them 
than Rachel had with her stolen gods, and in the 
end share a worse fate than Hamor and Shechem. 



WAYSIDE HEARERS. 129 



CHAPTER XXII. 

WAYSIDE HEARERS. 

One Sunday morning in October, 1851, 1 preached 
to a large audience on " Long Wharf," from the para- 
ble of the Sower. Illustrating how " Satan cometh 
immediately, and taketh away the word that was 
sown in their hearts," I said of his Satanic majesty, 
that " Just at the moment the good seed would take 
effect, he excites in the heart of the hearer opposing 
passions, or diverts his attention by presenting to his 
mind some attractive scheme or train of thought, 
while he devours the seed; or by sending a wagon- 
load of calves through the midst of the audience, to 
the great annoyance of attentive listeners." (A. load 
of calves for the market at that moment was passing 
through the crowd.) 

The audience so blocked the street sometimes from 
side to side with a living mass of humanity that it 
was difficult for a man to get through. A wagon or 
dray would therefore be subjected to considerable 
delay in making a passage through, and I frequently 
took advantage of the opportunity, and gave them a 





130 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

little "grape" as they passed. Once when a lean- 
looking man, driving a poor horse, was trying to 
urge his way through the crowd, I said, "Look at 
that poor man ! Working seven days in the week is 
bringing him rapidly down to his grave! A man 
cannot break the law of the Sabbath without vio- 
lating a law of his own constitution. Look at his 
sunken, sallow cheeks, and his dim eyes ! How the 
sin of Sabbath-breaking is telling on him ! He'll die 
soon if he don't reform. Look at his poor old horse ! 
The Lord ordained a Sabbath for that horse, but his 
merciless master is cheating him out of it. See 
there, how he beats him. After all, I had rather be 
the horse than the man, if he dies as he lives." 

On another occasion a wag, thinking to have a lit- 
tle sport, tried to ride through the crowd on one of 
the smallest of that small species of animals, the Jack. 
His animal refusing to go through, I said, "See there, 
that animal, like Balaam's of the same kind, has more 
respect for the worship of God than his master, who 
only lacks the ears of being the greater ass of the 
two." 

The man, in great confusion, beat his animal out 
of sight in double quick time. The reader may won- 
der how I managed to restore the equilibrium of the 
audience after such a scene. I always tried to an- 
ticipate that difficulty, and would follow such scenes 
by the most solemn appeal the subject in hand would 



WAYSIDE HEAEEKS. 131 

allow. The sudden surprise of such appeals some- 
times produces a thrilling effect for good. An im- 
portant end is accomplished when a sleepy congrega- 
tion is by any legitimate means fairly waked up. 
First melt, and then mold the metal. 



132 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

A MOTHER'S TODDY-LOVING SON. 

A mother, to whom God intrusted an infant heir 
of immortality, a beautiful boy, with instructions to 
train him for holiness and heaven, dosed her dear 
little boy with sweetened toddy, and taught him 
early to be a wine-bibber. Eo doubt she feels great 
solicitude for the welfare of her son since he left for 
California, and as she has not heard from him for a 
long time, for he seldom writes, I will give her a 
word of information concerning him. He has not 
been to church in San Francisco, for he was not 
taught to go to church even at home, and is not 
likely to form such a habit here. But he passed by 
where I was preaching one bright Sunday morning, 
in the spring of 1852, on Pacific-street. He listened 
a while, as most passers-by do, but he had been 
indulging a little, and was not in a good condition to 
receive the truth. After meeting, I saw him before 
me as I walked down Sansome-street. He " fetched 
up" in front of a large liquor-store, where a cask of 
brandy lay with a little pump in the bung. He 



A MOTHER'S TODDY-LOVING SON. 133 

looked for a moment with great apparent interest at 
the cask, as though he thought it a rare opportunity 
for cheap rations, and his gestures seemed to say, 
" O, for a demijohn !" 

But, mother, you know your son is a smart, invent- 
ive youth, as you used often to tell him, when his wits 
were sharpened by your sweetened toddy. So he 
immediately hit on the following happy expedient. 
Taking off his hat, he pumped it full of brandy ; and 
as, with joyful steps, he bore away his prize, every 
now and then he stopped and dipped his red nose 
into his hat. When I came " along side," I leaned 
over to smell the contents of his hat, so as not to be 
mistaken in my facts, and your generous son said to 
me : ""Come, take a drink, won't you ?" Not fancying 
the article, nor the vessel containing it, I respectfully 
declined. Your dear boy was well provided for that 
day, and probably got a good night's lodging on a free 
ticket, in the station-house. I have not seen the pre- 
cious youth since, unless, by possibility, he were the 
same man that I saw soon after in the bay. He had 
been "fished up " by some boatman, and was tied by 
one of his legs to a " pile," to await the arrival of the 
coroner, whose jury gravely sits on such cases, and 
at the city's expense, returns a verdict of " accidental 
drowning." 



134 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

THE DEATH OF BELSHAZZAR. 

On Sunday morning, January 4, 1852, I stood on 
the deck of the steamer Webber, at Long "Wharf, andi 
announced as my text : " In that very night was Bel 
shazzar, king of the Chaldeans, slain." Nearly oppo- 
site to where I stood, on the other side of the wharf, 
lay the steamer Empire, which had been chartered 
to convey a company of California legislators on that 
day to Yallejo, the seat of the legislature of this 
state at that time. The Empire was steaming up for 
her Sunday excursion, while I was trying to raise the 
steam on the Webber against Sunday excursions. 
My song drew to the side of our boat a large crowd, 
while the embarkation of the honorable legislators 
drew an equally large crowd to their boat, but I had 
the whole of both parties within the compass of my 
voice, and I preached to the Empire party more 
especially. As I doubted whether many of them ever 
went to church, I thought it a rare opportunity for 
giving them a little Gospel truth. 

I illustrated, by the life of Belshazzar, that a Sab- 



THE DEATH OF BELSHAZZAR. 135 

bath-breaking, licentious, carousing, drunken jnan, 
was utterly unfit for any official position in the gift of 
any respectable nation ; and to elect men to make 
our laws, whose brains were addled with brandy, and 
who showed so little respect for one of the highest 
laws and most venerable institutions of God, the holy 
Sabbath, was a wicked absurdity and a burning 
shame to the American people. I did not design, by 
these reflections, to implicate the whole of the Cali- 
fornia legislature, for it contained some very good 
men, but I thought them peculiarly applicable to the 
party addressed on that occasion. I illustrated fur- 
ther, the end of such a course of procedure, by the 
Mene, Tekel, Peres, the numbering, weighing, and 
dividing of the Chaldean kingdom, and the slaying 
of her wicked king. Already we begin to see the 
handwriting of doom on the wall of our illustrious 
palace of American liberty. God has given us a glo- 
rious country, 

" The land of the free and the home of the brave." 

But let the American people beware! God is 
the author of all our blessings, and must be 
honored. 

A number of months after this occasion, a stranger 
called on me, and requested a private interview. 
Said he to me : " Do you remember preaching from 
the deck of a steamboat at Long Wharf, nine months 



136 STREET PREACHING m SAN FRANCISCO. 

ago, # from a text concerning the destruction of Baby- 
lon, and the death of Belshazzar ?" 

"I preach there every Sunday morning. O yes," 
I replied, " I do remember it now, by the Sunday 
excursion which started that morning from the oppo- 
site side of the wharf." 

" That was the time to which I allude," said he ; 
and then related the following facts concerning him- 
self: "I was up to that morning a confirmed Univer- 
salist ; and was withal a very wicked sinner. As I 
was walking leisurely down the wharf that morning, I 
heard you singing, and went into the crowd, through 
curiosity, to hear what was to be said on the occasion. 
While you were preaching, a strange fearful ness, 
which I cannot describe, came over me. I felt a 
smothering sensation at my heart, and thought I was 
dying. My Universalism all vanished like smoke ; 
and I felt that if I died then, I should certainly go to 
hell. For some time I knew not what to do. I 
came very near crying out ; but something seemed 
to say to me, 'Pray, pray to God, in the name of 
Jesus Christ, for pardon.' So I began earnestly to 
pray. For three weeks I suffered a constant fearful- 
ness and trembling. I felt every moment as though 
some dreadful calamity or judgment was about to 
befall me. I was afraid to go to sleep at night, lest I 
should wake up in hell ; and every day there seemed 
to be literally a heavy mist before my eyes, which 



THE DEATH OF BELSHAZZAR, 137 

made every tiling look dark and dreary. But all these 
three dreadful weeks I continued to pray ; and sud- 
denly, while I was praying, and trying to trust in Jesus 
Christ, it appeared to me that a stream of light shone 
right down from heaven into my heart, and in a mo- 
ment I realized that my burden of sin was gone ; and 
instead of fearfulness, and a nervous tremor, I felt all 
the vigor of renewed youth. The mist of my eyes 
gave way to the brightness of morning. I praised 
God for his pardoning mercy. I have been up in the 
mountains ever since. I have had but few pub- 
lic religious privileges, but have had my private 
prayers, and have been recommending religion to all 
my associates. Jesus has been very precious to my 
soul all the time. To-morrow I expect to embark for 
China ; and I wanted to see you before leaving, and 
have a talk, and get some tracts and religious books 
for distribution aboard ship. I feel as though I 
ought to do all I can in the cause of Christ, for his 
great mercy to me, and for the great desire he has 
given me to see poor wandering souls converted." 

He did not expect soon, if ever, to return to Cali- 
fornia. So we closed our interview with a final 
farewell, and a mutual pledge to each other to live for 
God, and meet again on the other side of the river. 



138 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEK XXV. 

A PERSONAL COLLISION ON THE PLAZA. 

Sunday afternoon, January 18, 1852, I preached 
on the Plaza, from the judgment recorded on one 
side of Zechariah's " flying roll :" " And every one 
that sweareth shall be cut off, as on that side, accord- 
ing to it." Zechariah v, 3. Subject of discourse, 
profane swearing, a dreadful sin, notoriously preva- 
lent in California. Near my feet sat a stout, mus- 
cular man, who, though not drunk exactly, had rum 
enough in him to make him impudent. "When I 
read the text, he looked up and said, 

" Now go ahead, sir." 

I proceeded accordingly ; and in a few minutes he 
said, with an oath, 

" You are a fine-looking fellow ; I want to have 
your lithograph taken, sir." 

Said I, in an undertone, "My friend, you must be 
quiet, or you will have to go away." 

" Who will take me away ?" said he boisterously. 
" I would like to see the man, or any two men, who 
could take me away. Let any man touch me, if he 
dare." 



A PEKSONAL COLLISION ON THE PLAZA. 139 

Contrary to all precedent in my experience, before 
or since, no one tried to remove him. He seemed to 
have intimidated the people, who, as I afterward 
learned, were waiting for a policeman for whom they 
had sent. I, however, had reached a point in my 
discourse, where I wanted to illustrate the insinuating 
progress, and even increasingly degrading effects of 
the habit of profane swearing, and said: "Here, gen- 
tlemen, you see my subject illustrated. This is a 
man of fair talents and good education; a man 
who might be a very useful member of society in 
California, did he but follow the advice of his pious 
old mother. He once had a tender conscience, and 
a good reputation. The first oath he ever swore 
alarmed him, and he promised that he never would 
swear another ; but he came off here to California, 
and fell into bad company, and now look at him. 
Step by step he has gone down the road of degrada- 
tion, and here he is to-day — the holy Sabbath day — 
half drunk ; and here to disturb, by his foul oaths 
and curses, a worshiping assembly. What can be 
done for such a case ? My text says, ' He shall be 
cut off.' But it is a dreadful thing to see him sink 
under the judgment of God, and bring down the 
gray hairs of his old father in sorrow to the grave. 
The Lord have mercy on him." 

I had never seen the man before ; but learned 
afterward that I had hit it exactly in every particular 



140 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

of his history. He sat perfectly quiet while I took 
his " daguerreotype ;" but after a few minutes he 
rallied, and said, 

"I want you to get away from here, and let me 
talk." In a moment he sprang to his feet, and as I 
did not give back, there was a collision. He took 
hold of my coat collar, and I seized his arm, and gave 
him such a shaking as muscles, developed at a cur- 
rier's beam, can give, and passed him to a couple of 
men, saying, "Here, lead this fellow away. Don't 
hurt him, but take him out of sight." 

"Eow," said I to the audience, "while they are 
disposing of that fellow I'll sing you a song of Zion ;" 
and then I sung two or three verses of 

"Forever here my rest shall be, 

Close to thy bleeding side; 
This all my hope and all my plea, 

For me the Saviour died." 

The encounter greatly increased the audience, and 
I took up the subject where I left off, and proceeded 
with the discourse. The meeting from that to the 
close was unusually interesting. I give a single 
point as a specimen of the manner in which a crowd 
of swearers were addressed on the occasion : " But 
the swearer will say, 'I have got so much in the 
habit of swearing that I cannot quit it. I have often 
tried, but it's no use.' Indeed ! Is that so? If you 



A PERSONAL COLLISION ON THE PLAZA. 141 

have come to that, just own up now, as honest men, 
that you are the bond slaves of sin and children of 
Satan, ' led captive by the devil at his will ;' bound 
down by the chains of habit to a practice which 
must exclude you from heaven, disqualify you for 
decent society, and eventually shut you up in hell. 
O pitiable condition ! An angel would weep to see 
your souls, endowed with attributes capable of almost 
an unlimited development of intellectual strength 
and moral excellence, thus bound in chains to the 
galley oars of the devil. Upon your own confession, 
my dear sirs, this is your moral condition to-day. O 
let your cry ascend, c Who shall deliver me from 
this dreadful bondage of death V " 

In regard to the spirit in which I encountered my 
antagonist, I will here insert an extract from my 
journal, written immediately after the occurrence 
took place : 

"To one who did not see the circumstances, my 
action in taking hold of the fellow may seem rash. I 
have this to say, that it was done in the midst of a 
sermon, and in almost as short a time as it would 
take a man to clear his throat. I think I felt no 
other spirit than that of preaching my sermon out, in 
spite of the devil or any of his agents. In resisting 
the man I had no feeling of ill-will or design of 
injury, but simply to effect what I succeeded in 
doing. I confess there was nothing premeditated 



142 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

about it ; but I feel thankful to the Lord that I was 
preserved from bad temper, and that no one present, 
as I believe, suspected me of any other design than 
the one expressed. Though the man got a good 
griping and I got my coat torn, the result was only 
greatly to increase the multitude of attentive hearers, 
with no one to disturb them. Mr. Hall, the United 
States Commissioner of Public Buildings in Cali- 
fornia, who was present, told me that L. was, at 
home, a very respectable and sober man, and one of 
the best mechanics in the country ; but, with too 
many others, had fallen in California. Poor fellow ! 
I am sorry for him. O Lord, pluck him as a brand 
from the fire." 



A LIVING ILLUSTRATION. 143 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

A LIVING ILLUSTRATION. 

In the spring of 1852, as I was on the Long Wharf 
one Sunday morning, discoursing to a large audience 
on the " one thing needful," I proceeded first to show 
that it was needful to the well-being of the bodies of 
men. That religion, as a regulator of the appetites and 
passions, preserved men from a great variety of ex- 
cesses which were destructive to health and happiness. 
Illustrating this, I said to the crowd : " Go with me, 
if you please, through the hospitals of our city. Ask 
the hundreds of sufferers to whom I will introduce 
you, the cause of their afflictions ; and, while you will 
see some good men, brought down by unavoidable 
diseases, you will find that a large majority of those 
miserable beings have been there imprisoned for the 
violation of physical laws, from which this needful 
thing would have saved them." 

"That's true, Dr. Taylor; that's true, every word 
of it," cried an old man in the audience. 

"Yes, sir," said I, in reply; "you know it by 
sad experience. There, friends," I continued, "you 



144 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

have a living illustration of the truth of my po- 
sition. 

"That old man, lacking this needful thing, indulged 
his appetite for strong drink, and, as a consequence, 
I found him two years ago in the hospital. He lay 
there for many months, suffering everything, but 
death. The physician succeeded at last in doctoring 
up his old carcass, and if he had given his heart to 
the Lord, and obtained the healthful, preserving in- 
fluence of his grace, he might have continued a well 
man. But he went out still destitute of the one thing 
needful, and in a short time he again took the cup of 
death, for which he had to serve another long term in 
the hospital. With naturally a good constitution, if 
he had been possessed of vital godliness, the proba- 
bility is, he would not have lost a day from sickness in 
California. He is a ship-master, and capable of doing 
well for himself and his family ; and he came here, too, 
at a time when he had a good opportunity to make 
a fortune, and but for the want of this one needful 
thing, he might to-day be reclining on his well-earned 
California fortune, by his own happy fireside, sur- 
rounded by the wife of his youth and the lovely 
children the Lord has given them. But look at him. 
Here he is, a mere wreck of manly strength, found- 
ering on the lee-shore of the dreadful sea of inebria- 
tion; his wife clad in habiliments of mourning, 
blacker than the widow's weeds, and his beautiful 



A LIVING ILLUSTRATION. 145 

daughters disgraced, poverty stricken, and broken 
hearted. I fear he will never see them again, 
and if he does, he is unfit for the relations, duties, 
and associations of the head of such a family. (The 
poor old captain was now weeping and crying audi- 
bly, as a boy that was being castigated.) I would 
not, my friends, unnecessarily hurt the feelings of the 
poor old man. He knows I am one of the best 
friends he has in this land, and that I have often 
entreated him as a brother, and prayed at his side, 
and have done everything in my power to keep him 
from self-destruction, and to induce him to seek the 
one thing needful." 

In the next place I went on to show, by a variety 
of proofs and illustrations, the value of religion to 

the soul. 

10 



146 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER XXYH. 

CALIFORNIA HUSBANDS MEETING THEIR WIVES. 

The darkest chapter in the history of California 
is that which records the disruption of family ties 
and connubial relationships, occasioned, primarily, by 
the rage and rush of thousands of heads of families 
to her mines of gold. Many families of children 
have been thus neglected when they most needed a 
father's watchful care and counsels. Many a wife 
has pined with a broken heart on account of 
the absence of her husband, and the husband a 
desolate, isolated wanderer in a strange land. In 
very many cases, these husbands are unsuccessful, 
and often unable even to raise money enough to 
carry them to their poor, dependent families at home. 
Very many of both husbands and wives have died 
without the longed-for " meeting again." The mails, 
surcharged with death shocks, have for years been 
passing back and forth, from ocean to ocean, and 
ever and anon, suddenly and unexpectedly as a 
thunderbolt from a clear sky, the lightning leaps 
from the train and strikes the widow's heart, 



CALIFORNIA HUSBANDS MEETING THEIR "WIVES. 147 

and hope is gone. Still more dark and dreadful is 
the record of connubial infidelity, which has hope- 
lessly sundered and desolated hundreds of once happy 
families. 

In the midst of all these dangers the meeting of true 
and faithful husbands and wives, after weary years of 
separation, is an occasion of thrilling interest, and 
often furnishes scenes which baffle the painter's 
skill. Such scenes occur at our wharves on the 
arrival of each ocean steamer. A few incidents 
characterizing them are contained in the following 
extract from my journal. 

" Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1852.' — I boarded the steamer 
Panama upon her arrival this afternoon, to see if 
there were any missionaries aboard. Her trip had 
extended three days beyond her time, and much 
solicitude was felt for the safety of her precious 
freight of five hundred passengers. 

"About four thousand persons crowded down Long- 
Wharf to witness her arrival. Quite a company of 
anxious wives, who had come to join then* husbands, 
stood on deck, looking out to catch in the distance 
the joyful recognitions of those they loved. One 
simple-hearted, beautiful little woman, getting a 
glimpse of her husband in the crowd, clapped her 
hands, and danced for very gladness. One man 
rushed on deck, and threw both arms round his 
wife, as though he would run right away with her, 



148 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

and then, with arms around each other, they walked 
c abaft' in the greatest glee, not seeming to be con- 
scious that anybody was in sight of them. Nearly 
all that met embraced and kissed each other, some 
laughing and some weeping, amid the cheering of 
the multitude. A Mrs. Gardner, who had less of 
youthful fire than many, but I should say not less 
of genuine affection, was quietly seated on deck, 
waiting the arrival of her husband. The old gentle- 
man took off his hat when he got within a few feet 
of her, and with his venerable bald head bared, ap- 
proached her with an air of dignified affection which 
I cannot describe." 

On another occasion a man of my acquaintance, by 
the name of Brown, who was expecting the arrival 
of his wife, pressed through the crowd with eager 
haste to see if she was aboard, and inquired: 

" Is Mrs. Brown aboard ?" 

" Yes," answered one, " she is down in her room." 

She, in the meantime, learned that Mr. Brown was 
coming, and was filled with raptures at the thought. 
Mr. Brown found the room, and rushed in to embrace 
his dear wife, and, to their mutual disappointment, it 
wasn't either of them. He was not the man, and she 
was not the woman. 

But a sad case I saw, and it was one of many of 
the same kind. A man hasted aboard with joj^ous 
heart to meet his wife, and was told that three days 



CALIFORNIA HUSBANDS MEETING THEIR WIVES. 149 

out from Panama, she had suddenly sickened and 
died, and had found a grave in the deep blue sea. 
He was taken to her state-room, and there were her 
trunks and clothing, and everything just as her own 
hands had left them. Ah ! the sadness of that heart 
has never been told. 

When all the ship Zion's company shall have ar- 
rived in her destined haven, what joyful meetings 
we shall see on Canaan's shore. Shall our friends, 
who have gone before us, find us aboard, or shall it 
be told them that at such a time we left the ship and 
were drowned in perdition? The Lord bless my 
readers, and help them to prepare for the happy 
greeting on the other shore. 



150 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEK XXVIII. 



On the fourth of July, 1852, I preached a temper- 
ance sermon on the Plaza. I drew a parallel be- 
tween the oppressions of our fathers and mothers, 
under the administration of King George and his 
train of high officials, and the more dreadful suffer- 
ings of tens of thousands of our fellow-citizens, under 
the despotism of King Alcohol and his long train of 
officers, thousands of whom are quartered in our 
midst and pampered at our expense. I drew a 
picture of the aggressive marches of the enemy, and 
the horrible havoc he was making of American flesh 
and blood, and property, and tenderest ties, and 
dearest hopes, and asked them what they would do 
if any foreign potentate or power should invade our 
territory and commit such outrages with the bayo- 
net. Shades of Patrick Henry! Wouldn't Uncle 
Sam's boys rally and run to the rescue ? " Come 
forward to-day, like John Hancock and his invincible 
compatriots, and sign this ' Declaration of Independ- 
ence.'" About forty persons came forward and 



" DECLAKATION OF INDEPENDENCE." 151 

signed the temperance pledge. While I was dis- 
coursing, an old woman, who kept a grog-shop, close 
by where I stood, came out and cried : 

"Don't listen to him. He's an impostor. He's 
preaching for money. He's telling you lies." 

" Dry up, old woman," replied some of the out- 
siders ; " dry up ! We know what's the matter with 
you. Your craft is in danger. He is taking away 
your customers. We know Father Taylor. He's a 
good man, and he's telling the truth, and nothing 
but the truth." The woman immediately disappear- 
ed. Just as I closed my remarks, a man tried to get 
the attention of the audience, and said : " This man 
is an impostor, hallooing round here to get people's 
money." "Stop, stranger," said one; "what is your 
business here in the city ?" " Why, sir," replied the 
fellow, after being closely pressed for an answer, " I 
am a gambler, and I did a first-rate business, and 
made money here, till these preachers came to the 
city. But this fellow is hallooing at the people here 
every Sunday, and has broke up my business. I 
can't get a decent living." " Good ! good !" said one 
and another. " Hearken, friends," said I ; " this 
gambler has paid me a high compliment. He says 
I have broken up his business." " Good ! good !" 
responded the people, the gambler suddenly "vam- 
osed," and I have not laid eyes on him since. 



152 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

PROFANE SWEARING. 

Sunday afternoon, July 27, 1852, I had, on the 
Plaza, a congregation of about eight hundred. The 
subject of discourse was profane swearing. The ap- 
plication of the sermon ran thus : 

" Swearer, what do you mean ? Do you thus use 
the name of God ironically, to express your utmost 
contempt of the idea of a God ? Then you are an 
atheist. What a vast herd of atheists we have in our 
midst, who dayly feast on the acorns of Divine benefi- 
cence, and never acknowledge the oak whence they 
fell. Or do you believe that God takes pleasure in 
unrighteousness, and looks approvingly upon your 
corruption and wickedness? Then you are a Mo- 
hammedan. What a host of Mohammedans we have 
in this Christian country. c Eo, we are not Moham- 
medans, nor are we atheists ; we believe in a wise, good, 
and holy God, but we believe he is too good to damn a 
soul for a few years of sin.' Then you do not believe 
the Bible, and you are a set of infidels. What a 
crowd of infidels we have in this land of Bibles. 



PROFANE SWEARING. 153 

■ ISTo,' says one, c I believe the Bible, I believe in God 
and in all his attributes, in Jesus Christ and the Holy 
Spirit, and I believe in future rewards and punish- 
ments, in heaven and in hell.' That, then, swearer, is 
your faith, is it? You are a pretty orthodox fellow 
after all. Bat then, with this faith you stand up here, 
in the light of God's holy day, and with eyes, and 
face, and voice, and gestures, all indicating the great- 
est possible earnestness, you, in the presence of wit- 
nesses, most solemnly call upon God to ' damn your 
soul to hell.' How little did the Persian of whom 
the poet speaks, know of the import of such prayers : 

" ' A Persian, humble servant of the sun, 
Who, though devout, of bigotry had none, 
Hearing a lawyer, grave in his address, 
With adjuration every word impress, 
Thought the man a bishop, or, at least, 
God's name so oft upon his lips, a priest ; 
Bow'd at the close, with all his graceful airs, 
And ask'd an interest in his frequent prayers.' 

fc% Had the prayer been explained to the poor Per- 
sian, he would have fled from it as from a boa con- 
strictor. What does such a prayer imply ? There is 
a man who has a family at home. He has long been 
trying to get ready to return to them, and his wife 
and children are constantly writing him, ' Husband, 
do come home.' ' Father, we want to see you so 
badly we can hardly live ; when will you come home V 



154 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

You would like to see them all, would you not? 
And yet, as you walk these streets, you are dayly 
praying, and in your prayers, asking God with great 
apparent earnestness, that you may be cut off, and 
never allowed again to see your wife and children, 
and that your wife be left a desolate widow, and your 
children helpless orphans, to mourn over you, as 
those who have no hope, and that your business here 
may be left in other hands, and that your poor car- 
cass may be hauled out and stowed away unwept, 
with the rotting thousands of YerbaBuena Cemetery, 
and that your soul, covered with guilt and shame, may 
be ■ damned eternally by God.' O horrible ! Such 
a prayer chills my blood. Yet these are the petitions 
of the largest proportion of my praying audience. 
Well, do not be discouraged ; your prayers will be an- 
swered in due time. God is a prayer-hearing and a 
prayer-answering God, fulfilling all his promises, and 
his promise to you is, ' Every one that sweareth shall 
be cut off.' " 



A SABBATH DAY'S WORK. 155 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A SABBATH DAY'S WORK. 

An extract from my journal : 

"November 1, 1852. — Yesterday morning, (Sunday,) 
I, as usual, led class at 9 A. M. Preached on the 
Long Wharf at 10 A. M. Preached in the Bethel 
at 11 A. M. Preached in the State Marine Hospital 
at half past two P. M., and on the Plaza at 4 P. M. 
Preached again in the Bethel at 7 P. M. These are 
my regular appointments for each Sabbath. It may 
seem to be too much for one man to do, but the 
Lord gives me strength to do it, without inconven- 
ience or injury to myself. O Lord, give me moral 
power and good success in soul saving. 

" I will here record my thanksgiving to the Lord 
for the rescue of my little boy, Morgan Stuart, who 
fell into the bay this morning, where the water was 
ten feet deep. O Lord, I thank thee, that when my 
dear boy was sinking into the deep, thou didst enable 
me, at a single leap, to seize him and bear him above 
the surface of the foaming tide, till timely and safely 
conveyed ashore. Glory be to my merciful God." 



156 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

At a class-meeting held in the Bethel, in November, 
1852, a seeker of religion arose and said, " On my 
passage to California a fellow-passenger died just be- 
fore we reached Acapulco ; and after the captain had 
given orders to heave him overboard, some one found 
about his body a paper, certifying that he was an 
Odd Fellow. The Odd Fellows aboard at once coun- 
termanded the order of the captain, and after proper 
arrangements, took him ashore and buried him re- 
spectably, with the honors of an Odd Fellow. A pas- 
senger said to me, ' Now I see the necessity of being 
an Odd Fellow.' Said I to him in reply : ' Now I see 
the necessity of being a Christian, and by the grace 
of God I will seek religion.' I have been seeking 
religion ever since, and am determined never to give 
up the struggle." 



"SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS." 157 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

"SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS." 

On Sunday afternoon, October 2, 1853, I was 
preaching on the Plaza to about a thousand hearers 
from the text, "And he, trembling and astonished, 
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" In the 
midst of the discourse a drunken fellow began to 
mutter, and tried to create a disturbance, when 
another, pretty well intoxicated also, said to me : 

" Captain, I hope you will not consider it an inter- 
ruption, and I will beat this contemptible fellow like 

. I won't allow a preacher, a good man like 

Father Taylor, to be interrupted in the discharge of 
his duties. No, that I won't," clinching his fist at 
the same time, and making a push toward his an- 
tagonist. 

" Stop, my friend," said I. " I know you are my 
friend, and that you want to preserve order ; but that 
fellow is pretty badly scared now, and will, I have no 
doubt, remain perfectly quiet without a whipping. 
If he will not, then it will be time enough * to pitch 
into him.' Just hold on now, if you please." 



158 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

« Very well," said he ; " I'll do just as you tell 
me. If lie don't behave, I am on hand to give him 
the heaviest licking he ever got in all his born days." 

My friend, a man I never saw before nor since, had 
already made a great deal more disturbance than the 
foe, but quiet was very soon restored, and the preached 
word was manifestly attended by the Spirit of the 
Lord. At the close I sung Bishop Hedding's hymn : 

" Ye angels who mortals attend, 

And minister comfort in woe, 
Come listen, ye heavenly friends, 

My happier story to know. 
I sing of a theme most sublime, 

No sorrow my song can control : 
I sing of the rapturous time, 

"When Jesus spoke peace to my soul/' etc. 

I took the wounded from the Plaza to the Bethel, 
and that night we had eleven persons at the altar for 
prayers, three of whom then, and the rest soon after, 
professed to experience pardoning grace. 

Meeting a young man in the street, he thus ad- 
dressed me: "How are you, captain? I know you; 
I heard you preach on the Plaza. I encouraged you 
then; I contributed toward building the Bethel. I 
was sober then, and respected God. Now I am 
drunk, now I respect the devil." The devil elicits a 
great amount of respect by the wholesale and retail 
rum traffic, in which he is so extensively engaged. 



DEFENSE OF THE SABBATH. 159 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

DEFENSE OF THE SABBATH. 

In January, 1853, an article appeared in the 
"Alta California," a popular dayly of this city, over 
the signature of " Merchant," against the Sabbath as 
a day of religious observance. He attempted to 
prove, from the Hebrew Bible, that nothing more 
was contemplated in the institution of the Sabbath 
than a day of recreation, feasting, and dancing. He 
announced that that was the first of a series of articles 
on the same subject. The Sabbath following, Janu- 
ary 30, I had a large audience on Long Wharf, and 
took my text from " Merchant's" article in the news- 
paper, and preached on the origin and design of the 
Sabbath. The merchant, unhappily for himself, had 
chosen JSTehemiah as his favorite author, so we sent 
Nehemiah after him to deal with him, as he did with 
"the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware" 
which he expelled from the city of Jerusalem, for 
doing "as these Long Wharf merchants do here 
every Sunday." How successful I was in presenting 
the truth, and in "showing up" the fallacy of "Mer- 



160 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

chant's " positions, could, perhaps, better be decided by 
the congregation in attendance. But the rest of " Mer- 
chant's" series on the same subject never appeared. 
By the way, I had the pleasure of numbering our 
good Bishop Ames among my auditors on that occa- 
sion. Our street congregations usually stand up, but 
I honored our good bishop with a seat on a pile of 
wood which lay on the side of the wharf; and I will 
be pardoned for the liberty I take in saying, that he 
looked as good-natured and maintained his dignity as 
creditably to himself on that pile of wood as I have 
ever seen a bishop in his chair in Conference. 



EVIL TIDINGS. 161 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

EVIL TIDINGS. 

The following extract from my journal was writ- 
ten, as per date, from the best information I could 
get from passengers who were witnesses to the scene 
described, and to newspaper reports : 

" Friday \ April 1, 1853. — Yesterday was a day of 
evil tidings. We had an arrival of the surviving 
passengers of the wrecked steamship Independence. 

" The wreck occurred February 16, on Margarita 
Island. After striking a reef, which caused a very 
bad leak, a sail was drawn over the broken part, and 
the ship was headed in for the shore, for a convenient 
place to beach her. They succeeded, after a run 
of four miles, in grounding her, but the breakers 
were very heavy, and the first boat sent ashore with 
a line, swamped. The second boat succeeded in car- 
rying a hawser ashore ; but by this time the water 
had so risen in the ship as to stop the lower flues, and 
throw the fire out of the furnace doors, and in a mo- 
ment the ship was in flames. An indescribably hor- 
rible scene ensued. Hundreds jumped overboard, 

11 



162 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

and many, on floating spars and other light material, 
which had been thrown over for the purpose, suc- 
ceeded in reaching the shore. A poor sick man 
asked to be carried to the bulwarks of the vessel ; 
then crawled overboard, and sunk to rise no more. 
Rich men offered large sums to be taken ashore, but 
there was none to help. Mothers were seen running 
after their children, and one by one throwing them 
overboard. One poor mother chased her last fright- 
ened child to the verge of the flames, as it fled from 
her, and caught it and threw it into the ocean, and 
then jumped over to sink with her children beneath 
the dark waters. A Brother Knox, of precious mem- 
ory in our church at Sacramento City, there found a 
watery grave. A Captain Taylor conceived the idea 
that he would take his child between his teeth 
and his wife under his arm, and breast the breakers, 
and make the shore. He accordingly lowered his 
wife by a rope at the stern of the ship, and told her 
to hold on till he should come with the child ; but in 
the meantime, some one threw the child over, and he 
lost it. He then took his wife and swam ashore. 
She, however, from the loss of her child, and una- 
voidable injuries and exposures, took fever, and died 
just before they reached this port. She was buried 
in this city. The hawser, it is said, was hanging full 
of persons, who were working their way toward the 
shore, when one of the officers, fearing it would break 



EVIL TIDINGS. 163 

and drop its load, ordered its lackened a little ; but, 
unhappily, it dipped and submerged the whole line 
of strugglers after life beneath the breakers. Out of 
between four and live hundred passengers, it was be- 
lieved that about one hundred and fifty perished. 

"In addition to the above sad intelligence, I 
learned on yesterday that Brother J. Benham, an 
educated and promising young man from Brooklyn, 
New York, who was admitted on trial into the Cali- 
fornia Conference, at its recent session, and sent to 
Sacramento River Circuit, was drowned a few days 
since in attempting to ford Catche Creek, when very 
high. He was a young man of bright promise, and 
was, I learn, succeeding on his circuit very well in- 
deed. How strange that a career so promising 
should close so early and so suddenly. How very 
important that we be always ready." 

We are horrified at the details of those dreadful 
disasters, which by one fell swoop carry, as in a mo- 
ment, multitudes of our fellows from our midst into 
eternity. But we are reminded that the bodies of all 
our race are under sentence of death; that awful 
sentence incurred by sin, " Dust thou art, and unto 
dust shalt thou return." And every thirty years 
sweeps off a generation, each one suffering as much, 
in the aggregate, probably, as those who perished in 
the wreck of the Independence. When they drop 
off one by one, but very few, besides the immediate 



164 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

friends of the deceased, in any given case, feel the 
shock. And even the kindred themselves gradually 
prepare their minds for the event, so that equal hor- 
rors with those of a steamship disaster, are so distrib- 
uted as to lose, in a great degree, their startling 
effect. While no one dies because of a foreordained 
decree, neither does any one die by chance ; nor un- 
til, in view of his moral relations to God as a proba- 
tioner, he is summoned from the stage of life by the 
Great Supreme. When a cause for such a summons 
exists in our moral relations to God, we, having ful- 
filled the mission of life and ripened for glory, or 
having filled up the measure of iniquity, and made 
ourselves " vessels of wrath fitted for destruction," 
then, any one of the ten thousand occasions of death 
by which we are surrounded, is sufficient to push us 
off the stage. The difference between the different 
modes of these occasions or secondary causes is very 
slight. Now, in the order of Providence, a great 
many of such persons, and none others, are hurried 
simultaneously into eternity, for the warning and 
moral improvement of the living. " For when thy 
judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the 
world will learn righteousness." " But," says one, " if 
that doctrine be true, why should I be at any trouble 
to preserve or restore health? I shall die anyhow 
when my time comes." But, sir, the violation of the 
laws of health, and the neglect of all available restor- 



EVIL TIDINGS. 165 

atives, are sins, which affect those moral relations of 
which we speak, just as any other sins do, and by 
your sins you may class yourself with those of whom 
the Psalmist says, " Bloody and deceitful men shall 
not live out half their days." 



166 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER 

THE REPROBATE SAILOR REDEEMED. 

On Sunday afternoon, June 26, 1853, 1 found a man 
in my Bible-class, who seemed to be in distress, and 
I engaged him in the following conversation. Said 
he, in answer to my inquiries : 

" I was educated in my youth for a Universalist 
preacher, but I could not believe the doctrine, and 
instead of preaching I went to sea. I believe in the 
doctrine of foreordination and reprobation. I have 
been in great distress of mind for fourteen years. 
My soul is all over diseased. I have had no peace 
except what I got by drinking. I drank rum to 
relieve my distress. I have been hoping that God 
would have pity on me, and bring me in ; but I fear 
he never will do it. I fear I am a reprobate, and 
that there is no hope for me." 

" But, my brother," replied I, " God has declared, 
in the most solemn and unequivocal manner, ' As I 
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from 
his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil 



THE REPROBATE SAILOR REDEEMED. 167 

ways : for why will ye die V Again, it is a declara- 
tion of inspired truth that Jesus Christ, 'by the grace 
of God, hath tasted death for every man.' What 
for? Did he make a mock provision for such as 
were reprobated to eternal death ?" 

" Ah, but we are told," said he, " that though 
' many are called, but few are chosen.' " 

"Truly; but does God call the 'many,' and pro- 
claim to them the tidings of salvation deceitfully, to 
mock their fears and aggravate their bondage under 
chains of inexorable fate % Surely the righteous God 
is sincere in his offers of mercy to all sinners. Christ 
answers the question, why so ' few are chosen' of the 
' many called.' ' Ye will not come unto me, that ye 
might have life.' Now, my brother, God has been 
very desirous to save you for a long time ; but you 
would not let him. He has been calling you for 
fourteen years, and you would not come. Instead of 
hearkening to the voice Divine and obeying your 
Lord, you ran off to a grog shop and got drunk. Do 
you ever pray to God for mercy ?" 

"What!" said he; "I pray! I pray! Why it 
would be blasphemy for such a wretch as I am to 
pray. ' The prayers of the wicked are abomination 
to the Lord.' " 

I replied, "Solomon says, 'The sacrifice of the 
wicked is abomination ;' but it is nowhere said in the 
Bible that the prayers of a penitent sinner are abomi- 



168 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

nation ; but it is said, ' Let the wicked forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let 
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon.' How is he to do this ? By ' calling upon 
God while he is near.' He is near you now, my 
brother. The agony of soul you feel, and these tears, 
prove that his Spirit is now operating on your heart 
The Psalmist, as a poor sinner, cried to God from the 
horrible pit. Says he : ' I waited patiently for the 
Lord ; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 
He brought me up also [in answer to that cry] out of 
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay , and set my feet 
upon a rock, and established my goings. And he 
hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto 
our God.' And so the poor publican, who felt as guilty 
as you do, and ' could not lift up so much as his eyes 
unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God 
be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you this man went 
down to his home justified, 7 pardoned in answer to a 
sinner's prayer." 

" O, but," said he, " they were not near so bad as 
I am. The iniquities of my fathers for four genera- 
tions seem to be visited upon me." 

" O, you know," said I, " that the proverb, l The 
fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's 
teeth are set on edge,' has passed away long ago, so 
far as answering for the sins of our fathers is con- 



THE KEPKOBATE SAILOR REDEEMED. 169 

cerned. "Within the last fortnight more than half a 
dozen sinners, equally as bad as yon, some of them 
the worst men in the city, have, in this Bethel, called 
npon God and obtained mercy, and they are happy 
in his love to-day." 

So soon' as the Sunday school and Bible class 
closed, he was taken into the shipkeeper's room, 
where, surrounded by some warm-hearted sailors, he 
cried to God, in the name of Jesus, and in an hour 
experienced " redemption through the blood of the 
Lamb, even the forgiveness of his sins." That after- 
noon, after preaching on the Long "Wharf, he went 
round with a bundle of tracts for distribution, and 
manifested great zeal in trying to persuade his fellow- 
seamen to "ship" for the celestial port. He soon 
afterward went to sea. The Lord keep him stead- 
fast. 



170 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



OHAPTEE XXXV. 

THE DRUNKEN SUICIDE'S FUNERAL. 

On the twenty-sixth of May, 1853, I attended the 
funeral of W., of Pennsylvania, who had the previ- 
ous night committed suicide by the use of laudanum. 
He lay in a small, filthy shanty, attended by ten of 
his bar-room companions. The undertaker had not 
arrived when I entered the shanty, but the friends, 
in their generous haste, proceeded at once to put 
down the lid of the coffin. 

" Good-by, Bill," said one, as he fitted the coffin- 
lid, and then they went to work to set the screws. 
One used an old razor; another an old knife; two 
others employed themselves in pressing in the coffin 
and fitting the screws ; a fifth went off in haste to 
borrow a screw-driver, that the work, as he said, 
" might be finished up decently." 

In the meantime I proposed to them the following 
question: "How did this man come to his death!" 

"Hard drink," said one. "I've known him here 
for three years. Hard drink was the thing, sir." 

"No," said another, "Bill was one of the best 



THE DRUNKEN SUICIDE'S FUNERAL. 171 

boys in this city. He had his failing, and would 
drink, as we all do, bnt he was a first-rate fellow." 

" It was a sore face," said a third, " which pained 
him so that he got disheartened and took laudanum." 

" "No" said the fourth, " it was a punishment. He 
could not help it." (He meant it was so decreed.) 

"Well," said yet another, "I think it was his mis- 
fortune. He was driving a dray in the city, and 
had bad luck, and got discouraged, and put an end 
to himself." 

I then arose and sung : 

" That awful day will surely come, 
The appointed hour makes haste, 

When I must stand before my Judge, 
And pass the solemn test," etc. 

I then said : " It is a solemn thing to die. To die 
in our sins is dreadful ; but for a man to rush, by the 
violence of his own hands, unbidden, into the pres- 
ence of a sin-avenging God, is too horrible to be de- 
scribed. What could lead this man to such a dread- 
ful end?" I then quoted their testimony on the 
subject, and continued, "If this man had been a 
praying, sober man, would he have had that 'sore 
face ?' If he had ' been diligent in business, fervent 
in spirit, serving the Lord,' would he probably have 
had such 'hard luck?' and, if so, would these two 
evils combined have led him to destroy himself? 
Now the facts in the case are these : The ' sore face,' 



172 STEEET PKEACHING IN SAN FBANCISCO. 

the 'hard luck,' the discouragement and depression 
of spirits, were all the results of his drunkenness. 
And ' hard drink,' as this man has truly said, was the 
sole cause of his death. Now, how did he become 
so 'hard a drinker?' By tippling. When he used 
to drink, as you say you all do, he did not dream of 
such an end. Thus the fatal habit grew on him. Do 
you not know that the chains of habit are stronger 
than chains of steel? You are every day forging 
chains which bind you down more and more tightly 
to an infamous destiny. 

"Why do you drink? Because it gratifies your 
vitiated appetite. Every repetition, as you imagine, 
increases the gratification. The absence of this grati- 
fication creates, as a man said to me one day after 
preaching on the Long Wharf, ' a terrible pain down 
in here,' which must be relieved. And thus, by the 
combined forces of the pleasure and the pain occa- 
sioned by the absence of it, your desire for the deadly 
cup becomes more and more imperative. 

"This is the philosophy of this ruinous habit. 'A 
failing.' Ah! it is a fatal 'failing!' You cannot 
imagine where it will lead you. Your only hope of 
a better end than the case of this poor man, is to 
' taste not, touch not, handle not the unclean thing.' 
Begin now to pray, and cry to God in the name of 
Jesus for mercy, to forgive the past, and for grace to 
cure this ruinous habit, and to preserve you in the 



THE DRUNKEN SUICIDE'S FUNERAL. 173 

future. The Lord have mercy on your poor souls. 
I hope you will take warning from the awful end of 
your friend, and the dreadful grief it will occasion 
his widowed mother. For the sake of your bodies, 
and for the sake of your property, and for the sake 
of your blood-bought souls, and for the sake of your 
friends at home, tarry not, fly as from the mouth of 
hell, and lay hold of the hope set before you in the 
Gospel. It is your only hope for time and for 
eternity." 

The fellows gave most serious attention, and really 
seemed to feel the force of truth, and a " desire to 
flee the wrath to come." 



174 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XXXVI. 

A PEEP INTO A CALIFORNIA LOVE-FEAST. 

The following is a description of a love-feast, held 
in the Seamen's Bethel, San Francisco, May, 1853 : 
After a hearty, united song of praise to God, and 
prayer by the Rev. I. Owen, presiding elder, and 
the tokens of mutual Christian affection, between 
thirty and forty witnesses of Jesus testified to his 
saving love. Brother R. said: "At Buenos Ayres, 
in South America, God found me a poor sinner. I 
was, as too many seamen are, a most profane swearer. 
The Spirit of God mightily convinced me of sin. I 
thought of my mother's prayers and tears, and how I 
had lived. I wept and cried to God for mercy ; and 
there he spoke peace to my soul. Thank God for a 
praying mother. When I returned to the State of 
Maine, to tell my friends what God had done for me, 
I learned that on the very night God converted my soul 
at Buenos Ayres, my mother and other Christian friends 
were at a prayer-meeting, and prayed specially for 
me. Glory be to God, the prayers of the righteous 
avail much ! I enjoyed the life and power of religion 



A PEEP INTO A CALIFORNIA LOVE- FEAST. 175 

for several years. But when I arrived in California, 
in 1850, from a long voyage at sea, I was in a back- 
slidden state ; but I inquired for a Methodist Church, 
and went up the first Sunday to the chapel on Powell- 
street. After preaching, Brother Taylor invited 
seekers of religion and backsliders to come to the 
altar. I went right forward ; and there God again 
spoke peace to my soul. For three years he has kept 
me in California by his grace. I have ' shipped for 
the run,' and intend to 'keep my course,' till I land 
my soul in Canaan's peaceful haven." 
Then all sung : 

" Never more will I stray, 
From my Saviour away, 

But will follow my Lord till I die. 
I will take up my cross, 
And count all things but dross, 

Till I meet my Kedeemer on high." 

Brother B — t said : " I love the Lord Jesus Christ, 
for he sought me at a camp-meeting away up in 
Iowa, and spoke peace to my soul. In the midst of 
great trials, and much unfaithfulness on my part, he 
has led me along for ten years. I feel his love 
burning in my heart to-day. Glory be to his holy 
name !" 

The following song seemed to speak in melodious 
strains the feelings of every heart : 



176 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" O, Jesus, my Saviour, in thee I am blest ! 
My life and my treasure, my joy and my rest ! 
Thy grace be my theme, and thy name be my song, 
Thy love doth inspire my heart and my tongue. 

" O, who is like Jesus ! he's Salem's bright King ; 
He smiles and he loves me, he taught me to sing : 
I'll praise him, I'll praise him, and bow to his will, 
While rivers of pleapure my spirit do fill !" 

Brother L — g said: "I left Germany when a poy, 
and came to New- York. I heard Brother Lyon 
preach in New- York, from de text, 'Ye must pe 
porn again.' He came strange to me. I tid not 
know vot to do. I vent again, and kept going, till 
one Sunday morning the Lord converted my soul. I 
am still on my vay to Canaan's happy shore." 

Then the song was sung : 

"O, Canaan, bright Canaan! I'm bound for the land of Ca- 
naan," etc. 

Brother L — d arose, exclaiming: "Canaan is just 
where I want to go. At the corner of Pacific and 
Battery streets, in this city, God converted my soul. 
I came to California a very wicked sinner ; but the 
first Sunday after I landed I heard Brother Taylor 
preach on the wharf and on the Plaza, I was struck 
under deep conviction ; and for three weeks aft- 
erward a more miserable man than I was never 
walked these streets. I have heard a great deal 



A PEEP INTO A CALIFORNIA LOVE-FEAST. 177 

about taking up claims, and about Spanish titles, 
since I came to California. Brethren and sisters, I 
have staked off my claim, which I intend to hold and 
work forever. There's no Spanish title covering it. 
The devil, the most incorrigible old squatter that 
ever visited this world, has tried to 'jump my claim,' 
and dispossess me ; but I resisted him in the name of 
the Lord, and he fled away. I have a clear title to 'an 
inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth 
not away, reserved in heaven for me.' " 
As he sat down, the audience sung : 

" There is a land of pure delight, 

Where saints immortal reign ; 
Infinite day excludes the night, 

And pleasures banish pain." 

Brother S — r said : "I feel that I am indeed in a 
love-feast. Here we are from almost every part of 
the world. We have taken a little bread and water 
as tokens of our mutual love ; and we feel the love 
of Christ flowing into our hearts, uniting us all in one 
bundle of love. Brethren, my soul is happy." 

Brother C — r said : "At our last quarterly meeting 
I determined to live nearer to God. I feel that I 
have been better. I have many precious seasons all 
alone with Jesus, aboard my vessel. Four years ago, 
in old Massachusetts, on the eleventh day of March, 
God spoke peace to my soul. I went to church one 

12 



178 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

night swearing, determined to break up the meeting. 
The devil said he would help me ; but when I got to 
church, the preacher met me at the door, and said, 
{ Come, Mr. C — r, walk in ; here's a good seat for you.' 
My courage failed me, and I sat down gentle as a lamb. 
I went home praying, and fell upon my knees, and 
never got up till I found salvation. I feel it in my 
soul to-day, brethren. Halleluiah!" 

These words then swelled in melodious strains from 
many a joyous heart : 

"By faith I view my Saviour dying. 

On the tree ! on the tree ! 
To every nation he is crying, 

Look to me I look to me ! 
He bids the guilty now draw near, 
Kepent, believe, dismiss their fear — 
Hark ! hark ! what precious words I hear, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free ! 

"Did Christ, when I was sin pursuing, 

Pity me, pity me? 
And did he snatch my soul from ruin? 

Can it be, can it be ? 
O, yes ! he did salvation bring ; 
He is my prophet, priest, and king; 
And now my happy soul can sing, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free !" 

Brother B — n said, " I embraced religion in Balti- 
more City, and the time which has since elapsed is 



A PEEP INTO A CALIFORNIA LOVE-FEAST. 179 

the happiest period of my life. The grace of God 
has been sufficient for me in California. When I 
came to California, I knew but little about ih.Q doc- 
trine of holiness, but I have here learned much, and 
have proved the virtue of Christ's blood in a full 
salvation from all sin. Glory be to God ! I am 
the Lord's wholly, soul, body, and spirit. O, that I 
may be ' preserved blameless unto the coming of the 
Lord Jesus Christ.' " 
We then sung : 

"Refining fire, go through my heart; 

Illuminate my soul ; 
Scatter thy life through every part, 

And sanctify the whole. 

" O, that it now from heaven might fall, 

And all my sins consume; 
Come, Holy Ghost, for thee I call ; 

Spirit of burning, come." 

Then Brother IX — t arose and said : "I am not 
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for I have proved 
it to be the power of God unto the salvation of my 
soul. I embraced religion eighteen years ago in the 
City of Philadelphia. But for religion, I believe I 
would now be in hell. God has been good to me. 
Eeligion is love." 

Then the song : 

" Religion is a glorious treasure, 
Diffusion of the Saviour's love ; 



180 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

The Spirit's comfort without measure ; 

It joins our souls to those above : 
It calms our fears, it soothes our sorrows, 

It smooths our way o'er life's rough sea : 
While endless ages are onward rolling, 

This heavenly portion ours shall be." 

Next arose Brother W — r, and said : " I have en- 
joyed religion for ten years. I have been a very un- 
profitable servant, bnt I am happy in God to-day. I 
have children in heaven ; I expect to meet them 
there." 

And then we sung of that happy home : 



To the cheerless gloom of the moldering dead : 

We wait in hope on the promise given; 

We will meet up there in our home in heaven." 

Brother E — s next arose and said : " I was left a 
little orphan boy in Sweden. I soon after went to 
sea, and was discharged from the ship at a Swedish 
port, far from home. I was without friends, and 
without money, but I remembered that my mother 
used to tell me, that if ever I got into any trouble, 
to pray to God, and he would direct me. So I 
thought this is a time of trouble, and I went down to 
the sea-shore and prayed. I felt as though God 
heard my prayer. I rose from my knees, and walked 
along, cold and hungry, not knowing whither I went. 



A PEEP INTO A CALIFOKNIA LOVE-FEAST. 181 

I had gone but a short distance, when my attention 
was arrested by the sight of some children going to 
school. I thought : ' O, I wish I could go to school, 
but I have no father and no mother ; I am a poor 
homeless boy, with nobody to care for me,' and, 
weeping, I went and sat down on the steps of the 
school-house. The teacher came out and said : ' Lit- 
tle boy, where do you live V 'I don't live anywhere,' 
said I ; ' I have no home.' ' Where do your parents 
live V ' I have none ; my father and mother are both 
dead, and I have not a friend in the world.' ' Would 
you like to go to school?' ' O, yes,' I replied, 'I 
would be very glad to go to school, if I had clothes 
fit, and had anywhere to live.' ' What is your 
name V said he. ' P. E— s.' 'Well, Peter, you shall 
live with me and go to school.' Thus, though not a 
Christian, God gave me an education in answer to 
prayer. I afterward became a sailor, and got very 
wicked. But soon after I came to California, in the 
early part of 1850, I heard Brother Taylor singing on 
the Plaza one Sunday afternoon, and I went up and 
listened to what he had to say. The truth took hold 
of my heart, and that week God converted my soul. 
I am happy to find so many friends here in Califor- 
nia, lovers of Jesus. I believe, verily, that God will 
fetch me through." 

And then our souls found utterance in Newton's 
good old hymn : 



182 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" Though troubles assail, and dangers affright, 
Though friends should all fail, and foes all unite, 
Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide, 
The promise assures us, The Lord will provide." 

Next Brother H — n said : " I obtained religion in 
Prince Edward's Island. Religion in California has 
been my polar star. I do feel that I have an interest 
in Christ's atoning blood. I thank God that on my 
first Sabbath in California I went to Church. That 
was a turning point with me." 

Brother W — w said : " I have buried seven chil- 
dren in their infancy. They are all safe in heaven, 
where I expect to meet them. I have but one child 
living, and he gives me more care than the loss of all 
the rest. O pray that he may be converted." 

Brother S — r, from ISTew- Jersey, said: "I have 
proved the blessedness of religion by an experience 
of twenty-two years. I was converted in a love-feast, 
and I never attended one since without getting my 
soul blessed." 

Brother O. said he had enjoyed religion for 
twenty-six years, and intended to travel " all the 
length of the celestial road." 

We then sung : 

"Even down to old age all my people shall prove 
My sov'reign, eternal, unchangeable love ; 
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn, 
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne." 



A PEEP INTO A CALIFORNIA LOVE-FEAST. 183 

Brother H. B., from Baltimore City, said : " I was 
brought up without any religious instruction. I 
knew nothing about religion, had never even heard a 
prayer in the family till I was twenty-eight years old. 
I. D., my partner, was a Methodist class-leader, 
though I did not know it, for I knew nothing about 
the Methodists. One Saturday evening my partner 
said to me : ' Henry, if you go on in this way you will 
be lost. You ought to pray, and go to church, and 
seek religion.' Said I to him, ' What church do you 
go to, sir V ' To Caroline street Church.' i Well, sir, 
I'll go to-morrow,' said I. I went, and heard Thomas 
Seargent preach. The truth made a wonderful im- 
pression on my mind. I went the next day and 
bought a Bible and Jay's Prayers, and commenced 
reading and trying to reform ; but I was completely 
miserable. For three days and nights I could not 
rest nor eat. I then went to a camp-meeting, the 
first I ever attended. This was the sixth day of 
August, 1833. That night Samuel Kepler preached, 
and invited all persons who wanted to seek religion 
to come into the altar. I immediately arose in the 
congregation and started in haste to the altar. When 
I got to the gate the gate-keeper said to me, 'We 
don't want any in here but mourners.' ' I don't 
know what you mean by mourners,' said I ; * but I 
want to seek salvation.' 'Come in, come in,' said 
he; 'you are the very man we want to see.' I 



184 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

kneeled down and cried mightily to God for mercy. 
A man said to me, ' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved.' ' What did you say, sir V 
said I. ' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved.' 'I do believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ,' said I; and at that very moment I did be- 
lieve and experienced the salvation of my soul. 
Glory be to God. For many years I have enjoyed 
full salvation through the blood of Jesus." 

" Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, 
Praise him, all creatures here below, 
Praise him above, ye heavenly host, 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 



"YOU'VE KNOCKED ME ALL INTO A KINK." 185 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

"YOU'VE KNOCKED ME ALL INTO A KINK." 

On Sunday, January 10, 1854, after preaching on 
the Plaza from the text, " If our heart condemn us, 
God is greater than our hearts, for he knoweth all 
things," a stranger spoke to me, saying : 

"There is a man by the name of S., from B., lying 
at the point of death in that house, the third door 
from here," (pointing to the door.) He also inti- 
mated to me something of S.'s notorious character as 
a wicked man, and said he: "S. did not send for 
you ; but his parents were religious, and perhaps 
you may do him some good." 

I went in, and found him attended by four or five 
men, who appeared to receive me very kindly. He 
lay, pale and ghastly, evidently very near the grave. 
I said to him : " Friend S., do you suffer much pain ?" 

"No," replied he, very abruptly. I then turned 
away and exchanged a little conversation with his 
companions, and, in about five minutes, I approached 
him again, and, in the mildest and most hopeful 
manner I could, said : 



186 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" Friend S., do you not feel as though you might 
rally and recover?" hoping to gain access to his heart. 
He replied : 

" When I want anybody to talk to me, I'll send for 
him." 

" I have called in," said I, " as a friend, feeling 
the greatest sympathy for you, and am ready to do 
anything for your comfort in my power." 

"I'd thank Mr. H.," said he, upbraiding the man 
whom he suspected of asking me in, " to attend to 
his own business." And then addressing me, he 
continued : " Before you came in here I had some 
peace, but you have knocked me all into a kink, and 
if you will just go away, I think I can die in peace." 

He lived close to where I preached on the Plaza, 
and he had probably heard me preach a hundred 
times, and thus my presence, without the utterance 
of a word in regard to the condition of his soul, 
brought to his mind, doubtless, a thousand Gospel 
associations which seemed to throw him into unutter- 
able tortures. His only peace depended on his ban- 
ishing from his mind all thoughts of the past and 
future. Poor fellow ! how sorry I felt for him. If 
the presence of a poor street preacher, clogged with 
mortality, "knocked him all into a kink," to use his 
own language, how could he bear the presence of 
holy angels, and of the great multitude of the re- 
deemed in glory, were he admitted to heaven ? How 



"YOU'VE KNOCKED ME ALL INTO A KINK." 187 

could he bear the presence of the awful God, whom 
he had insulted and defied all his life ? How prepos- 
terous the idea of any man's being received into the 
kingdom of glory, without an education adapting 
him to heavenly enjoyments ; a moral fitness for 
such a place. Heaven would be the most unbeara- 
ble of all hells to such a man as poor S. He left the 
world " all in a kink," a few hours after I saw him, 
and eternal ages will not suffice to straighten him out. 
We have got to untangle all our kinks on this side of 
the river, or remain "all in a kink" forever. Let 
every man lay this to heart, " For there is no work, 
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, 
whither thou goest." "When we stand before the 
judgment-seat of Christ, it will be to answer "for the 
deeds done in the body." No record there of any- 
thing done by us out of the body, or subsequent to 
our leaviug the body. The subject-matter for the 
final adjudication of the last day is all taken from 
the records of our probation on earth. Our case at 
death is at once entered in its place on the calendar 
of the Supreme Court of the Universe, and there it 
unalterably stands for the day of trial. Sinner, be- 
ware ! " God out of Christ is a consuming fire." 



188 STBEET PKEACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER XXXYIII. 

HONORARY CHURCH MEMBERS. 

At the close of a camp-meeting, held in Alameda, 
in May, 1854, twelve miles from this city, across the 
bay, at which fifteen persons professed justifying 
grace and united with the Church, I commenced a 
protracted meeting in the Bethel, which was contin- 
ued a month. During the Bethel meeting ujDward 
of thirty professed to experience religion, and united 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church. When J. B. 
B., one of our young converts, gave his name as a 
candidate for Church membership, he said : 

"Brethren, in almost all societies there are active 
and honorary members. It is never expected that 
honorary members should do anything in the Society. 
Now I have not come into the Church as an honora- 
ry member. I want you to put me down for an 
active member, for I want to do all I can in the 
cause of God. I have a burning love for souls, and I 
mean to do all in my power to bring them to Jesus.' * 

He was very active as a young Christian in the 
Bethel. He is now a member in Powell-street. I 



a o, i'm so 'shamed!" 189 

baptized him and several other young converts in the 
bay, by immersion. Some of our ministers decline 
to administer baptism bj that mode, believing it 
much better to convince the subject that "sprinkling 
or pouring" is better. But if a person has been 
brought up under Baptist influence, and taught from 
childhood that they ought to be immersed, I gener- 
ally find it better, as I believe, to settle their con- 
scientious scruples at once, by putting them under 
the water. At any rate, I feel bound to go by the 
Discipline. 

"O, I'M SO 'SHAMED!" 

During the progress of a protracted meeting in the 
Bethel, in July, 1854, I said to a sailor who seemed 
to be concerned, as I thought, about his soul, "Come, 
sir, come along, and kneel down at the altar." He, 
thinking that I was captain of the ship, and that my 
orders were not to be questioned, got right up and 
promptly obeyed the order. 

After a while I went to him to give him a little in- 
struction in "regard to the work before him, when he 
said: "O captain, do let me get up, I feel so 'shamed; 
I have nearly fainted two or three times. O, I am 
so 'shamed, I must go, I can't stay here. If you will 
let me go this time, I'll come back to Church again 
next Sunday. Do just let me oft' this time." 



190 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" Why, my dear sir," I replied, " if you get up and 
go out now, before all this congregation, they will 
look at you, and will think you are 'backing down' 
from what you have undertaken. You had better 
remain where you are till the meeting is out." 

" O, I am so 'shamed," he responded. 

He remained on his knees till the congregation 
was dismissed, but I could not get him to pray much. 
He left, and I saw him no more. Poor fellow, he 
would have a hard time of it if admitted into heaven 
in his sins and shame. 



THE SAILOR'S VISION ON LONG WHARF. 191 



CHAPTEK XXXIX. 

THE SAILOR'S VISION ON LONG WHARF. 

Two English seamen heard a sermon on Long 
"Wharf, in the autumn of 1853, on the healing of the 
woman who had been sick twelve years, and " had 
suffered many things of many physicians, and had 
spent all that she had, and was nothing better, but 
rather grew worse," until she found Jesus, and touch- 
ed the hem of his garment. 

They became so distressed on account of their own 
wretched condition as sinners, that they went to the 
Bethel that night, and presented themselves as seek- 
ers of religion. Soon afterward, they experienced 
the healing virtue of the blood of Jesus in their own 
hearts, and became consistent, happy Christians. 

One of them afterward, in relating his experience, 
said : " "When I saw that poor old woman, on Long 
Wharf, press through the crowd, and touch the hem 
of the Saviour's garment, I couldn't help but cry, and 
I thought, O I wish I could go to him and touch his 
garment too, and be healed with the poor woman." 

William B., a zealous young Christian in our 



192 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Bethel, speaking of ( what a miserable time he had 
while in the service of the devil, gave an account of 
his voyage to California in 1848. Said he : 

" I shipped in the brig C. F., Captain P., from Bal- 
timore. After we got out to sea, the captain flogged 
me regularly three times a day, all the way out, and 
called me by no other name than 'Son of a b — .' On 
one occasion he said to me, 'B., I believe whipping 
don't hurt you much, and now I am going to punish 
you.' He took me and tied me over the hawser-pipe, 
at the bows, where I was drenched with sea-water at 
every dip of the brig. I remained there in soak, 
without a bite to eat, for three days and nights. The 
captain also beat the cook till he jumped overboard, 
and then lowered a boat and beat him in the water, 
and took him up just in time to save his life. I was 
then a wild, drinking boy, nineteen years of age." 

A sailor's life is a hard one at best, but poor B. 
seemed to have fared worse than usually falls to the 
lot of his kind. Flogging has been abolished in our 
navy, and is but seldom resorted to in our merchant 
ships at the present day. 



"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY." 19S 



CHAPTEK XL. 

"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY" IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

I will take my reader back to Sunday, the twenty- 
seventh day of August, 1854. Not because of the 
peculiarities of that day particularly, for there were 
many of the same sort, but because I happen to find 
in my journal copious notes of that day, which bring 
all its scenes fresh to my memory. I will ask the read- 
er's pardon before I start, for the apparent egotism of 
requesting his company through a whole Sabbath, 
to hear me sing, and preach, and walk, and talk ; but 
then you must know that I only claim to be a poor 
sinner, saved by the great mercy of God, in Christ, 
taken up from the humble walks of life, and can 
never forget " the rock whence I was hewn, and the 
hole of the pit whence I was digged." Whatever 
good is wrought through me, the Lord doeth it. To 
him be all the glory. I commence my journey at 
half past eight in the morning in the U. S. Marine 
Hospital, and go through all the wards, and distrib- 
ute tracts to one hundred and fifty patients. See 
how glad they are to get the tracts. There is a poor 

13 



194 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

fellow almost gone. Tracts are of no avail to him 
now. He has doubtless stood many a gale, but, poor 
man, he is "stranding" at last. I will speak to him 
of Jesus, and have a word of prayer by his side. 
There's a man who has been confined two years by 
an abscess in his side. And there's a poor fellow 
who has been still longer confined by paralysis. He 
is unable to talk, but he can hear, and understand, 
and can read. I will tell him of the great Physi- 
cian, who is famous for curing the " palsy," and give 
him a good tract. And now, at nine o'clock, the 
bell rings for preaching in the dining-room. I will 
sing while they are coming in. 

" By faith I view my Saviour dying, 

On the tree ! on the tree ! 
To every nation he is crying, 

Look to me! look to me! 
He hids the guilty now draw near, 
Repent, believe, dismiss their fear ; 
Hark! hark! what precious words I hear, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free ! 

" Did Christ, when I was sin pursuing, 

Pity me, pity me ? 
And did he snatch my soul from ruin ? 

Can it be, can it be ? 
O yes, he did salvation bring; 
He is my prophet, priest, and king ; 
And now my happy soul can sing, 

Mercy's free! mercy's free! 



"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY." 195 

" This precious truth, ye sailors, hear it, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free ! 
Ye ministers of God, declare it, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free ! 
Visit the sailors dark abode, 
Proclaim to all the love of God, 
And spread the glorious news abroad, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free ! 

" Long as I live, I'll still be crying, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free ! 
And this shall be my theme when dying, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free ! 
And when the vale of death I've pass'd, 
When lodged above the stormy llast, 
I'll sing while endless ages last, 

Mercy's free ! mercy's free !" 

"The lesson for the occasion may be found in the 
third chapter of the Gospel of St. John, from the first 
to the seventeenth verse. 

"We will now sing that good Church hymn, com- 
mencing : 

" ' Of him who did salvation bring,' etc. 

" Your mothers taught many of you to sing when 
you were little boys. Now, can you not all unite 
with me in singing the praise of God? Sing out 
just as you do sometimes when 'hauling ship into 
port.' Now, let us all kneel down and pray. Jesus 
is here this morning; he's looking at you now, 'and 



196 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

his ear is open to your cry.' O speak to him!" 
There were present about forty convalescent patients. 
The text may be found in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
verses of the third chapter of St. John : " As Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must 
the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
" I. The scene in the wilderness. The camp of Israel, 
containing nearly two millions of souls, more than six 
times exceeding in number the entire population of 
this state. The Arabian desert, as far almost as the 
eye can penetrate the distance, is covered with the 
tents of Jacob. What a vast ' camp-meeting' that 
was, and the presence of God was manifested there. 
But ' the people spake against Moses, and against 
Gocl, Wherefore have you brought us up out of 
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no 
bread, neither is there any water,' (that was a lie, 
upon their own admission,) ' and our souls loatheth 
this light bread.' ' And the Lord sent fiery serpents 
among the people, and they bit. the people, and much 
people died.' You have been in large cities where 
the ravages of cholera threw the whole population 
into a panic, but throughout this vast encampment 
there was one universal wail of distress. The human 
family has an awful dread of snakes, especially when 
they crawl into our tents at night. But here a swarm 
of the most dreadful serpents we ever heard of, 



"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOUKNEY." 197 

poured simultaneously from all directions into the 
camp. They ran like racers, and flew from tent to 
tent like angels of death. They were so quick in 
their movements, that there was no possibility of 
resisting them, and the poison they struck, as by 
electric shocks, into the life-blood of old and young, 
in every tent, was so deadly, that there was no rem- 
edy. This is the picture of the moral condition of the 
whole human family. Where is the man or woman, 
in this world, who has not been stung and poisoned 
by the old serpent that invaded the very garden of 
Eden ? The effect, mortally, is not so sudden as in 
the camp of Israel, but none the less certainly fatal 
to soul and body. O the misery, and lamentation, 
and woe, occasioned in all our tents by that deadliest 
of all poisons, sin ! 

"II. What is the remedy? Moses, by the com- 
mand of God, made a serpent of brass and put it on 
a pole. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, even so has the Son of man been lifted 
up, etc. 

"III. What is the condition by which the healing 
virtue of the remedy may be applied to the subject? 
A proclamation was sounded throughout the camp of 
Israel, ' Look at the brazen serpent and live.' And 
from all the tents you see them coming forth, some 
walking, some crawling, some carried by their friends; 
and looking, they lived. So soon as a sufferer fixed 



198 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

his languid eye on the brazen serpent, his eye bright- 
ened, the poison in his veins was neutralized, and he 
sprang up in vigorous health. Some almost dead, 
their eyes already set in their sockets, yet when 
raised up by a friend, and their dim eyes fixed on 
the object, they immediately sprang into life. But 
there's an old skeptical, stubborn Jew, who is badly 
bitten, who says, 'What good will it do me to looL 
at a piece of brass ? Who ever heard of a piece of 
brass curing a snake-bite?' It is the power of God 
that is to cure you, my friend ; but he requires you 
to look, as a necessary condition and test of your 
obedience. 'But,' says he, 'it will do me no good, 
and it's no use to try. If God intends to cure me^ 
he'll cure me anyhow. If he does not, I can't cure 
myself by looking at the brazen serpent.' Need I 
tell you, my hearers, that the stubborn old sinner 
died in his sins without remedy? So also a dying 
world is invited, by the glad tidings of salvation, to 
look to Christ, the uplifted Saviour," etc. 

The poor, sick sailors listened with great atten- 
tion. 

I must now hasten to my appointment, at ten 
o'clock, on Davis-street Wharf. I will not trouble 
you to keep up with me. I'll run on, and sing up a 
crowd, and you can come along at your leisure. The 
chariot and the royal proclamation sung, see what 
a multitude of hungry souls, of almost every nation, 



"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY." 199 

I have to preach to ! O, Redeemer, pity these lost 
sheep. 

Our text reads as follows : " Daughter, be of good 
comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in 
peace." 

" The dreadful condition of this poor woman : sick 
for so many years : spent everything she had for 
medicine and doctors' bills: suffered many things by 
their experiments : got worse and worse. Such is 
your moral condition to-day. 

"What was the poor woman to do? She had 
heard of Jesus. She saw from her window a crowd 
in the street, and inquired, ' What is that ? what is 
that?' ' Jesus has come to town,' said one. 'Yes, 
that's the great Prophet of Nazareth passing along 
the street now.' 'O! if I could only get to him,' 
thought the sick woman, 'he would cure me of this 
dreadful plague, and would not charge me a penny.' 
But, poor creature, how could she ? ' And yet,' 
thought she, ' this is probably my last chance. I 
may never see him again. I had as well die in the 
street, and be trodden down by the multitude, as to 
die in this miserable place. I'll go to Jesus. Pll 
go, or perish in the attempt!' 

"Give back, gentlemen, and let this poor woman 
pass. Struggling under untold miseries of body and 
of heart, overcoming one difficulty after another, 
see her approaching the Saviour. O ! if she can 



200 STREET PREACHING IK SAN FRANCISCO. 

only get to him she will be cured, for he is full of 
compassion, and never turned one poor sinner away 
who came to him for relief. She crawls up behind 
him, almost fainting with exhaustion, and ' touches 
the border of his garment.' See her spring to her 
feet — active as a girl of sixteen. Now, though 
cured, her conscience is tender, she fears that she 
has intruded, and she would not offend Jesus for the 
world; but she makes a candid confession, right 
there in the street, in presence of the whole crowd, 
and Jesus says to her, with a smile betokening the 
infinite sympathy of his heart, ' Daughter, be of good 
comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in 
peace !' 

" Can she ever forget that day ? Can I ever for- 
get the day when Jesus spoke peace to my soul? 
Glory be to God ! Jesus is here to-day. He is pass- 
ing along the street now. Ye weaiy, heavy-laden 
sinners, he is speaking to you. Hark ! he says, 
' Come unto me, and I will give you rest.' Will you 
go to him? Will you press your way in spite of all 
opposition % Will you go now ? Sing the Doxology. 
Preaching at the Bethel at eleven o'clock. Now, as 
soon as we can get there. Come along, I'll show you 
the way." 

Text in the Bethel at eleven o'clock : " If any man 
will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." Had 
a very gracious season. But if the reader will have 



"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY." 201 

patience to perform the "journey" of the day, I will 
not tax him with all its varied exercises. 

At half past two o'clock in the afternoon I preached, 
in the hall of the Sons of Temperance, the funeral 
sermon of Robert Anderson, late of Mobile, Alabama. 
Text : " O death ! where is thy sting ? O grave ! 
where is thy victory?" Mr. Anderson's family, con- 
sisting of his wife and three or four children, was 
present. His wife and daughter are Methodists. 
The old gentleman was nominally a Presbyterian. 
He, it is said, had been very wealthy, but had be- 
come by some reverses very poor. He informed me 
that for thirty years he had been a praying man, 
and had kept up prayers regularly in his family ; 
" and yet," said he, " I never had religion. I believe 
I have been a sincere seeker of religion, but never 
knew anything of it but its forms." I spent hours 
with him at different times, before I could get him to 
look to Christ alone for salvation ; but finally, some 
days before his death, his mourning was turned into 
joy. I believe he was genuinely converted, and 
that he conquered death, through the blood of Jesus, 
and has gone to a home in heaven. I accompanied 
the funeral procession to " Lone Mountain Cemetery," 
a distance of three or four miles. Five o'clock finds 
me back on the Plaza, attended by about one thousand 
hearers, to whom I preached a temperance sermon. 

" My text on this occasion may be found recorded 



202 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

in the Book of Chronicles of the ' Common Council' 
of this city. It is embodied in an ordinance passed, 
by that honorable body last Monday night, the 
twenty-first instant, under the effect of a judgment 
rendered by one of our courts against the city, in 
favor of Mrs. Rosa Greenough, for ten thousand dol- 
lars. The said ordinance orders the payment of the 
said ten thousand dollars to the said Mrs. Greenough. 
' What was the ground of her claim against the city 
fathers?' She sued them for an indemnity for the 
loss of her husband, Robert Greenough, who fell 
through a hole in Bush-street, which caused his 
death. 'How did this hole happen to be in the 
street V By the neglect of the city authorities to keep 
the street in order. ' What were the man's eyes for 
but to look out for holes in the street?' We have 
darkness as well as light, and when men vjalk in 
darkness they cannot see their danger. ' Why should 
the man be out in the dark?' That question is not 
relevant to the point. He was out in the dark, and 
returned to his waiting wife no more. He fell 
through the hole and perished. Had the city fathers 
done their duty, the hole had not been there, and 
Robert had not died at their expense. They con- 
fessed judgment, and paid the ten thousand dollars 
damages. "Very good. If the man was worth that 
amount, and that is a very low price for a good hus- 
band, (though we can supply good ones here in Cali- 



"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY. 1 ' 203 

fornia at a cheaper rate,) Mrs. Greenough had a 
right to the money. 

" Well, on the very night this appropriation was 
made, a man by the name of Mahan got drank and 
fell off Meigs's Wharf into the bay, and was drowned. 
' How did Mr. Mahan come to his death ?' He fell 
into a rum 'hole,' and perished in consequence of 
his fall. 'How came the "hole" there?' Through 
somebody's neglect ? No ; it was opened on puiv 
pose to catch men. ' Ah ! do we have such holes in 
onr streets ?' Yea, verily. Not in Bush-street alone, 
but in every street in the city, and on almost every 
corner of every street. Are not these holes much 
more dangerous to life and limb than such holes 
as caused the death of poor Greenough ? I believe 
Robert Greenough is the first man I remember to 
have heard of who lost his life in that way in this 
city. Who can tell how many hundreds of men, 
strong men, fathers of dej:>endent families at home, 
and sons of affectionate mothers far away, have fallen 
into these rum holes and perished without hope? 
' Their name is legion.' You have all seen the enor- 
mity of this evil in our midst. Does not a tremendous 
responsibility attach somewhere? Are not heavy 
damages due from some source ? What is to pay ? 
Ask the wife of H. S., whose husband was picked up 
in one of these 'holes' one dreadful stormy night, 
and was put by a policeman into a bunk in the 



204 STREET PREACHING IN SAX FRANCISCO. 

station-house, not fifty yards from this spot, where he 
could be sheltered from the storm, and there, all 
alone, at the midnight hour, from the effects of his 
fall in these ' holes,' he died. He was once the head 
clerk of a large business house in B., a capable man, 
with an interesting wife and child waiting for his 
return. 

" Ask the mother of Judge B., one of the brightest 
stars of the legal profession in this city. Many of 
you have hung with delight on the eloquence of his 
lips. But he walked in darkness, fell into these 
holes, and perished. He is gone forever. Who 
is to pay for all this? Do the city authorities, whose 
business it is to remove nuisances, stop dangerous 
holes in the streets, and protect the lives and proper- 
ty of their people, know that there are such danger- 
ous holes in the city ? Know it ? How can they 
help but know it ? Every five year old child in the 
city knows it. ' How is it that the city fathers seem 
to be ignorant of these things? Would it not be well 
to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance?' 
Why, my clear sirs, what are you talking about? 
These holes are opened, and kept open, by their 
permission and authority. Their children are falling 
through these trap-doors of hell, into the burning pool, 
every day, and yet the fathers keep them open every 
day and Sunday, from the first day of January to the 
last day of December. O shocking ! O consistency, 



"A SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY." 205 

thou art a jewel not to be found in the administra- 
tion of civil government. E"ow, then, are not the 
city authorities injustice and equity responsible? If 
Mrs. Green ough could make them pay her ten thou- 
sand dollars for the loss of her husband, because of 
their neglect to stop a certain hole in Bush-street, has 
not Mrs. Mahan as good a right in equity to the 
same amount for the loss of her husband, because of 
the ' holes ' they opened in the streets % Why a man. 
made them pay him eight hundred dollars for the 
loss of his horse, that fell through a hole in Pacific- 
street ' Is not a man much better ' than a horse ? 
Here is Judge Shattuck, whom you all know, judge 
of the Superior Court in this city; I will submit the 
question to him without farther argument, on the 
grounds of justice, equity, and consistency. Mrs. 
Mahan vs. the City of San Francisco. The plaintiff 
in this case, may it please your honor, sues for ten 
thousand dollars damages, for the loss of her husband, 
who perished last Monday night, by reason of certain 
dangerous 'holes,' opened in different parts of the 
city by the authority of the 'city fathers.' Now, 
gentlemen, we will wait the judge's decision. ' I am 
bound,' said the judge, ' in equity, to give judgment 
against the city, in favor of the plaintiff.' Good. A 
solemn appeal was then made to all Christians, patri- 
ots, and philanthropists, to oppose, by all honorable 
means, this sum of all evils, the rum traffic." 



206 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

At half past seven P. M., I am again in the Bethel. 
Good congregation. Text : " Friend, how earnest 
thon in hither, not having the wedding garment?" 
The occasion was one of great interest. Prayer- 
meeting after sermon. Singing lively and prayers 
fervent. I close my journey for the day in the " guest 
chamber" of a bridegroom and his blooming bride, 
whom I united in the bonds of holy matrimony. 
Wishing our reader companion pleasant dreams and 
refreshing sleep after a Sabbath-day's journey in 
San Francisco, I bid him good night. 



THE FARE HAS RISEN. 207 



CHAPTEK XLL 

THE FARE HAS RISEN. 

On Sunday, September 10, 1854, I preached at the 
corner of Davis and Jackson streets, to a large crowd, 
many of whom were miners, who had been disap- 
pointed in a passage home. The fare had been very 
high for many months, from $140 to $250 per passen- 
ger to Kew-York. But three steamers had advertised 
to leave on Friday, the 8th instant, and competition 
ran so high, that the fare was reduced to a very low 
figure. This caused a " rush from the mountains." 
Applications for passage were so numerous, and many 
were so desirous to get the fare reduced still lower, 
that the companies, the day before the sailing of the 
steamers, raised the fare to the former high rate. My 
text on this occasion was : " And the Lord shut him 
in." ISToah and his family had wisely improved their 
opportunity, and secured their passage in the ark ; 
but now the office was closed, no more passengers 
received, and the door was shut. 

One of my illustrations ran thus : " Many of you 
wanted to go home. The fare to Xew-York wa9 



208 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

down to $20. That was a rare opportunity, but you 
delayed to embrace it. You said, ' Time enough yet. 
The fare will be lower still. By to-morrow we'll get 
tickets for a dollar and a quarter a piece.' And 
while discoursing on the probabilities of a ' more con- 
venient season' for securing your tickets, one of your 
party inquired at the office to see how fast the price 
was coming down : ' What is the fare now, Mr. G. V 
6 I'll put you clear through to New- York in the steer- 
age,' replied Mr. G., ' for $140.' ' Well, sir, I won't 
go in your boat,' said the miner ; ' I'll wait for the 
next steamer.' ' Very good,' said Mr. G; 'whenever 
you get ready to buy your ticket, we'll be happy to 
sell you one.' 

"The time has been, my friends, when you might 
very easily have secured a passage to heaven in the 
ark of salvation. You remember the many gracious 
opportunities you have had ; but ' the fare has gone 
up.' It has risen in proportion to the multitude and 
magnitude of your sins. O how rapidly it has gone 
up since you came to California. You need never 
again talk of a convenient season to come. Your 
convenient season has passed long ago, never to re- 
turn. The fare will never be any lower than it is to- 
day. But the office is open now, and your tickets 
are ready for you. We demand a renunciation of all 
your sins, and a consecration of your hearts and lives 
to God, and your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. 






THE FARE HAS RISEN. 209 

Will you accede to these terms ? ' Behold ! now is 
the accepted time.' Engage your passage to-day. 
To-morrow the office may be closed, and the door 
shut, and then the deluge of retributive justice will 
sweep you away and drown you in perdition." 

14 



210 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER XLH. 

A DUELIST'S FUNERAL. 

I submit the following letter, as an introduction to 
my subject: 

" Kev. Mr. Taylor, — 

" Dear Sir, — Colonel Woocllief, a gentleman from 
Texas, with whom you probably had some acquaint- 
ance, was killed yesterday in a duel with Mr. Kewen. 
Previous to the duel in the morning he expressed a 
desire that, in case of his death, you should be re- 
quested to perform the appropriate ceremonies over 
his body. If you will be kind enough to do so, sir, 
you will confer a favor upon the many friends of 
Colonel Woodlief, and particularly upon his lady. 
The funeral will take place at two o'clock this after- 
noon, from the Tehama House. 

" Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
" Eichard W. Allen. 

"San Francisco, Nov. 9, 1854." 

Colonel Woodlief's untimely death w r as sincerely 
regretted by the large assembly of his friends who 



A DUELIST'S FUNERAL. 211 

attended his funeral. It is not an easy task for a 
minister, in the presence of such an auditory and a 
weeping widow, to do justice to the cause of truth 
and the feelings of his hearers. I once heard a minis- 
ter preach at the funeral of an alderman in this city, 
and, though the man was known to be a notorious 
drunkard, and it was believed that he had killed him- 
self by hard drinking, he was held up by the minis- 
ter, in the presence of the mayor, councilmen, and 
a vast assemblage of citizens, as a paragon of moral 
excellence. The impression was conveyed that he 
had without doubt been admitted to glory, because 
he was an honorable alderman of the City of San 
Francisco. My moral sensibilities were shocked. I 
would not unnecessarily hurt the feelings of bereaved 
friends. But thus to obliterate moral distinctions in 
character, and endorse such men, without repentance, 
as suitable subjects for the kingdom of heaven, gives 
the lie to God's holy word, and encourages sin. My 
fears for the effect of that sermon on the community 
were such that I was led, on the following Sabbath, 
to preach to a large audience on the Plaza from this 
text : " In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in tor- 
ment." 

On the occasion of Colonel Woodlief's funeral I 
said: "My dear friends, you are doubtless all ac- 
quainted with the person and character of Colonel 
Woodlief, and the melancholy circumstances of his 



212 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

death. He was, by birth, a fellow-Virginian with 
myself, and was always, I believe, regarded, by those 
who knew him, as a high-minded, honorable gentle- 
man, and I exceedingly regret that I cannot add, a 
Christian. He was one of my regular hearers on the 
Plaza, and was often deeply affected by the word of 
truth. Some months ago, just after a sermon there one 
Sunday afternoon, I said to him : ' Colonel, allow me 
to introduce you to Captain M'Donald.' Taking him 
by the hand, the colonel said, 'I know the captain 
very well ; we fought side by side on the fields of 
Mexico.' ' Ah, indeed ! and did you know,' I re- 
plied, ' that the captain has embraced religion since 
he came to California ?' ' yes,' said he ; ' I know 
that too. He told me all about it.' ' Well,' said I, 
' do you see what a great change it has wrought in 
him V ' Yes,' said he, \ I see it, I see it.' His eyes 
filled with tears, and his utterances were choked 
by strong emotion. "When he could speak, he 
said: 'Don't talk to me on that subject, I cannot 
stand it.' 

"That was a gracious moment for Colonel Wood- 
lief. The Holy Spirit was touching the tender chords 
of his soul, and wooing him toward the cross of Jesus. 
O, how sorry I am to-day that he did not yield to its 
blessed influence, and become a Christian ! Religion 
would have made him a happy and useful man ; and 
we would have been spared the mournful duty we 



A DUELIST'S FUNERAL. 213 

are called upon to perform to-day. For had he pos- 
sessed the love of God in his heart, the probability is 
he would not have been challenged ; and had he 
been, he would have acted under a higher 'code' 
than that adopted by chivalrous, though erring men. 
He would have exhibited a moral heroism, in stand- 
ing for his duty to God, himself, his wife, and to 
society, that would have put to shame the moral 
coward that would engage him in mortal combat. 
O that he had obeyed the calls of God's Holy 
Spirit; then, had he died in the order of Providence, 
we would stand round his corpse with very different 
feelings. We could then, indeed, mix a sweet solace 
into the bitter cup of the weeping widow. Beware, 
my friends, of grieving the Holy Spirit! Seek, 
while you may, God's pardoning mercy. Place 
yourselves under his parental protection, as obedient 
children, that you may be saved from, or prepared 
for, the dangers and death incident to mortal life. 
Jesus Christ, your best friend, is waiting now at the 
door of your hearts for an answer. He is very de- 
sirous to save every one of you from your sins, and 
only asks your consent. 

" Will you let him ? I sincerely condole this dear 
woman in the deep sorrow of her very sad and sudden 
bereavement. Let us bear her, in the hands of 
earnest prayer and faith, to the mercy-seat, and com- 
mend her to the compassion of Jesus." 



214 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

The occasion was one of great solemnity and 
sorrow. "We urged the audience to use all their 
influence to put down the murderous " code," on 
whose "honorable" altar their friend had been dis- 
honored and sacrificed. 



RESTITUTION. 215 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

RESTITUTION. 

The law of restitution is one of God's immutable 
laws. The man who willfully wrongs his fellow-man 
cannot obtain the favor of God, until the spirit of 
this law is fulfilled in his heart; when, if it be within 
the range of possibility, he will give proof of it by 
actual restitution. This law applies as directly to 
theft of character as it does to theft of property. The 
man who, by detraction and slander, robs his neigh- 
bor of his good name, cannot obtain pardon from 
God, until by confession to the injured party, and 
reparation of the injury done, so far as it is in his 
power, he fulfills the demands of the law of restitu- 
tion. Many persons, and not a few professors of 
religion, are engaged in the miserable business of 
peddling slang, wholesale and retail; and yet they 
wonder why they do not enjoy the blessed assurances 
of Divine favor, as in other years. The fact is, the 
Lord can as easily save old Lucifer from the pit, as 
save the slanderer, unless he submit to the claims of 
this immutable law of restitution, 



216 STEEET PEEACHING IN SAN FEANCISCO. 

The practical operation of this law was illustrated 
by the case of a sailor who embraced religion in the 
" Bethel," in San Francisco, March, 1854. He wrote 
a history of his awakening and conversion in verse, 
which was published soon after in the California 
Christian Advocate. For the illustration of the 
point in question, I will here insert an extract from a 
letter I received from him the day he sailed from 
that port : 



" Ship "Westwaed Ho, lying in San 
Feanoisco Bat, March 21, 1854. 



L, ^"" l/-« ~-l, 



"Kind Friend, — I am afraid I did not give you 
such a cordial reception as I ought this morning ; or 
thank you enough for your kindness in bringing me 
those books. But you will pardon me, as your visit 
was unexpected ; and I had just come out from a set 
of drunken sailors in the forecastle, where I had been 
to get my breakfast. So be kind enough to receive 
my earnest thanks now, that I have time to address 
myself to you ; though my ideas are very much con- 
fused, as I am forced to write this in the forecastle 
among a set of sailors, who are still half drunk, and 
swearing and talking around me. 

" I was very glad to see you this morning, as I 
was getting rather discontented with my situation, 
having heard a very bad name of the ship, but your 
visit drove my discontentedness away at once, and I 



RESTITUTION. 217 

now feel quite happy. I have been thinking of, and 
praying to the Lord all clay, and so have been able 
to keep evil thoughts out of my head. 

" I will now give you a brief sketch of my life. I 
was born in Chester, England, and brought up in 
London. My friends are all religious. My father 
died when I was thirteen. I then went to live with 
my uncle, E. D., who is now, with his wife and fam- 
ily, living at ISTew Town, Geelong, Australia. I got 
tired of my uncle's house, and he apprenticed me to 
a baker at Bracknell in Berkshire, England, in 1847. 
I served the baker about four months, when I robbed 
him and ran away. Since then I have been going to 
sea. I came here in the ' Flying Dutchman,' in Oc- 
tober last, and it is to make restitution to the baker 
that I am now going to England, by way of Calcutta 
and the States, not trusting to that act for my salva- 
tion, but to show my friends that my repentance is 
sincere. 

" Since I have been at sea I have given myself up 
to all sorts of wickedness, and I believe I have not 
been more than half a dozen times to a place of wor- 
ship during the whole term of my sea life till I came 
to California. Since then I have heard you preach 
several times. O, sir ! if my friends in England only 
knew what a change has come over me, how happy 
they would be. I know they are always praying 
for me. 



218 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" I often think of the text, l Be sure your sin will 
find you out.' It has found me out often on the deep. 
Perhaps you noticed my teeth being broken. That 
was done by a fall from aloft when I was in the 
Mediterranean once. If I had died then I should 
have gone to hell. And several other times have I 
narrowly escaped death, because God kept me safe 
for this hour. On Sunday last some old acquaint- 
ances were trying to persuade me to cheat the board- 
ing master, and go with one of them in a sloop for 
more than twice the wages I am getting here, but I 
refused and went to the Bethel, not knowing that 
these things were going to happen. At another time 
I should have gone with them in a minute. I can 
see the Lord's hand in it all." 

Here we see a young man, under the promptings 
of the law of restitution, which " the Holy Spirit 
writes on truly awakened hearts," leaving the land 
of gold, where he desired to stay, and where he had 
a fair opportunity to make money, to circumnavigate 
the globe for the purpose of restoring what he had 
taken when a boy. God takes " the will for the 
deed," only when the deed is impossible. 



•• SHANGH AEING " THE SAILORS. 219 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

» SHANGHAEING " THE SAILORS. 

The humble, but just claims of the men of the sea, 
upon the consideration and sympathizing regards of 
the American people, have often been presented and 
urged, and as often disregarded and rejected, until 
within the last thirty years, since which time they 
have been, in part, acknowledged and honored. The 
history of the sailor, his isolation from domestic 
society and the refinements and luxuries of home, his 
spirit of adventure, courage, patience, toils, suffer- 
ings by starvation, cold, shipwreck, confinement in 
foreign hospitals, adventures among savages and 
cannibals, his imprisonments and slow tortures, his 
death by the violence of war and piracy, by the 
violence of the hurricane that sweeps the ocean, and 
by the more dreadful tortures of wasting famine, has 
been written in detached fragments on every page 
of the history of commercial nations, and especially 
of our own country. Strike out the history of the 
sailor, and American history would be what Ameri- 
can commerce would be but for the presence of the 



220 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

living sailor. Seamen are our great explorers and 
discoverers, and the bones and sinews of our com- 
merce ; and they, more than any other instrumental- 
ities which, can readily be employed, can hinder or 
assist the dissemination of enlightened civilization 
and Christianity throughout the world. 

The complaint has often been made that the in- 
fluence of the seamen of Christian nations upon the 
heathen, was one of the greatest barriers to the suc- 
cessful preaching of the Gospel to heathen nations 
that the missionary has had to encounter. The prin- 
ciples and facts underlying this complaint, or the 
grounds on which it is based, will prove that seamen, 
if Christianized themselves, will be the most efficient 
auxiliaries in spreading the Gospel in heathen lands 
the missionary can employ. Every enlightened, 
active Christian sailor is himself a missionary by 
direct appointment of Providence. We cannot dis- 
pense with our regular missionaries to heathen lands, 
and they ought to be multiplied a hundredfold. 
They are our foreign generals in the King's army, 
but we need private soldiers as well. Why not enlist 
the sailors? Seamen are as necessary in moral ex- 
ploration and discovery in distant lands now, as 
they have been in the past in physical exploration 
and discover}^. They have many and great advant- 
ages in this work over the regular missionary. 

First. In regard to distance. What trouble and 



"SHANGHAELNG" THE SAILORS. 221 

expense the missionary endures in overcoming this 
difficulty ; to the sailor no part of the globe is remote, 
and his expense is just nothing. 

Second. In regard to the facilities of communication 
after the field is reached. The missionary must 
spend years to acquire and speak the language, and 
then his access to the people is embarrassed by 
numerous obstructions. His themes of conversation 
are new and undesirable. The very fact that he is a 
missionary, come to teach a people -who consider their 
own religion the very best iu the world, excites sus- 
picion, jealousy, and prejudice. To overcome this 
difficulty, it has often been found advisable for the 
missionary to connect with his care for their souls 
the treatment of their bodies " as the doctor." 

But the sailor gains access to their hearts at once 
through the channels of their dayly thoughts and 
feelings, commerce, trade, self-interest. They have 
no prejudices against the sailor, such as bar their 
hearts against the missionary. He is but a common 
man like one of themselves, and his familiar inter- 
course with them enables him to pick up and use 
their colloquial language with wonderful facility. 

Third. In regard to priority of time. Preemption 
in new countries insures a great advantage, morally 
as well as physically. The sailor makes his mark in 
heathen countries a hundred years in advance of the 
call for a missionary meeting to devise ways and 



222 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

means for the appointment and support of a mis- 
sionary in that distant field. When the man of God 
reaches his distant field, he not only finds the sailor 
there and perfectly at home, but, also, that he has 
been received by the natives for a century past as a 
honafide representative of Christianity. The heathen, 
knowing nothing of the distinction between professing 
and non-professing Christians, set down in their ac- 
count every man belonging to Christian nations as a 
Christian, and fix in their minds the moral standard 
of Christianity accordingly. When the missionary 
attempts to explain, and draw the line of distinction 
between himself and his illustrious predecessor, the 
sailor, the heathen will reply, "Your people are all 
sharp ; they know what is good. If your religion is 
as good as you say it is, why do they not all em- 
brace it 8" 

These various facts might be amply proved and illus- 
trated from the history of the heathen nations of Asia 
and Japan, and the islands of the Pacific in general; 
but are they not patent to all? Even in South America, 
the familiar resort of seamen for two hundred and 
fifty years past, the American Protestant Churches 
have two missionaries, one in Buenos Ayres and one 
in Valparaiso, on the opposite side of the continent. 
I have briefly sketched these facts to remind the 
American people again of their obligations to the 
sailor, and to remind the Church of the important 



"SHANGHAEING" THE SAILORS. 223 

fact, that the conversion of seamen is of the first 
moment, if not absolutely necessary to the Ohristiani- 
zation of heathen nations. 

" But," says one, " we can more easily convert the 
heathen than the sailors." 

When Jesus wanted missionaries to bear the title 
of " Sons of thunder," he selected from among the 
sailors of the Sea of Galilee, and had no difficulty in 
getting them converted. I believe he wants many 
such now, and think that if the Church will do her 
part on behalf of seamen, the Saviour will have no 
difficulty in having them reconciled to God, and 
qualified for their work. Poor sailors ! what advant- 
ages have they had ? You have had pious parents, 
the restraints of the domestic circle, and of family re- 
ligion, good maternal counsels, Sabbath-school in- 
structions, and preaching every Sunday since you 
were a little boy ; but the mass of seamen have none 
of these. The little orphan boy was put aboard ship 
at the age of five years, and educated in the forecastle, 
under the tuition of the regularly graduated tars of the 
old school. His character bears not one molding 
touch of a mother's prayers or counsels, nor the 
refinements of home circles. The voice of prayer he 
never heard, except in the storm that wrecked the 
ship, but he heard the same praying ones swearing 
again, so soon as the storm abated. He never was at 
preaching since he was born, and the warm gushings 



224 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

of Christian sympathy never came in reach of his 
heart ; and yet no heart is more susceptible of gener- 
ous emotion, and more impressible by sincere sympa- 
thy than his. Those who seek to destroy him, well 
know how to take advantage of these facts. What 
class of men so deserving, have been so much 
neglected in the past? True, government has built 
them hospitals, and the Church, bethels and homes; 
but much yet remains to be done ; and the extent of 
the abuse they have suffered in home and foreign 
ports, by the " landshark " fraternity, a system of 
abuse familiarly known in California under the title 
of " Shanghaeing," (pronounced Shanghiing,) has 
never been learned by the mass of our people, a 
" mystery of iniquity," the enormity of which the 
light of eternity only can reveal. 

The following lecture on " Shanghaeing the sailors," 
was delivered on the Plaza to an attentive audience, 
in September, 1855, and I here give it as nearly 
verbatim as I can copy it from the records of 
memory. After making some remarks on the char- 
acter and condition of seamen, I said : 

" Gentlemen, the system of Shanghaeing, to which 
I invite attention, is almost as ancient as the com- 
merce of nations ; but the term Shanghaeing is a 
modern, California name, the origin of which we will 
give you in due time. I say system of Shanghae- 
ing, because it embraces a combination of laws and 



"SHANGHAEING" THE SAILORS. 225 

forces, employed by a combination of men for the 
accomplishment of a specific end, namely, to reduce 
to a state of perfect vassalage and voluntary serfdom, 
the millions of men who ' go down into the sea in 
ships,' and to gather all the fruit of their toils. The 
secret motto of the system is, c get all the sailors' 
money, honestly if most convenient, but get it.' 

" A single Shanghaeing fraternity (and we have 
twenty-three of them along our water front) embraces, 
1. A sailor landlord, alias ' landshark,' alias ' Shang- 
haer.' 2. A drayman. 3. A ' longshoreman.' 4. A 
sailor lawyer. 5. A shipping-master. The sailor 
landlord keeps a sailor boarding-house, bar, etc. 
The longshoreman mans, with a pair of oars, a White- 
hall boat. The sailor lawyer prosecutes suits against 
captains and owners of vessels, and otherwise collects 
seamen's wages, damages for maltreatment, etc. The 
shipping-master provides crews for the ships as they 
' clear,' by contract with the ship-master, for five dol- 
lars per head. The captain of the vessel ships none 
of Ills men directly ; they must all come to him 
through the shipping .office, where the shipping arti- 
cles are kept for signature. The whole contract for 
the voyage with the crew, is made by the shipping- 
master, who is to see them all aboard at the hour for 
sailing, and the captain has nothing to do with them 
till he gives the order for sailing. The advance 
wages are paid, not in money, lest the sailor should 



226 STKEET PREACHING- IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

spend it, and then refuse to go to sea, but by a check 
on the shipping-office, to be paid three days after the 
ship sails. The ship-master, it will be seen, is not a 
party in the Shanghaeing business, and the shipping- 
master is a party from necessity rather than from de- 
sign, as we will show, and may, nevertheless, be an 
honorable man. The lawyer may, by possibility, be 
an honorable man, but he will bear watching. 

" We will now show you the practical working of 
the system. A ship is 'telegraphed,' and the 'long- 
shoreman' is ready with his boat. He is in the 
stream, and listening for the command, ' Let go the 
anchor.' Immediately he is on deck, and perfectly 
delighted to meet his poor brother seamen from a 
long voyage. 

" 'How are you, my good fellows ? I'm glad to see 
you ! You've got to the right port at last. The most 
glorious country in the world; a regular God-send for 
poor sailors ! A crew came in last week, and left 
their ship, as they all do here, and now every man 
of them is getting a hundred dollars a month to stay 
ashore. If you'll all come along with me and put up 
at our house, I have chances waiting, and you shall 
have work ashore at once, and wages that are wages.' 

"Thus he decoys the entire crew. Sometimes he 
takes them right away in defiance of the captain. 
On one occasion a captain ran out, with a small 
deringer in his hand, and the longshoreman said, 



"SHANGHAEING" THE SAILORS. 227 

'Captain, what are you going to do with that 
thing V ' If you interfere with my men,' replied 
the captain, '"I'll put a ball through yon!' The 
boatman, pulling out one of Colt's large revolvers, 
said, 'Here, captain, take this; that little thing is 
no account.' Then, turning on his heel, he said to 
the crew, ' Come on, boys. Pass down your " don- 
nage" here into my boat. I'll take care of you.' 
They all went in spite of the captain's threats. 
But the usual method is to make an appointment 
with the crew to have the boat 'alongside' at a cer- 
tain watch in the night. The boys all get ready at 
the hour appointed. Their faithful friend, who has 
promised to emancipate them from the horrors of a 
sailor's life, is on hand, and bears them to the wharf. 
The drayman is waiting on the wharf with his dray, 
on which their 'donnage' is transferred from the 
boat, and now all hands march up together to the 
'home.' The landlord meets them with a hearty 
'shake hands.' 'Welcome to nry house, my good 
fellows ! You've had a hard time of it, I know. I 
am prepared to sympathize with you, for I am a 
regular old salt myself. I'm glad you've come to 
this glorious country ! Walk in ! walk in ! and 
make yourselves at home. Everything in this 
world you want you shall have while you stay with 
me.' 

" Now all hands must ' treat.' The landlord treats, 



228 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

the longshoreman treats, the drayman and each sailor 
treats, and by this time the whole crew is drank, un- 
less, perchance, there may be one who has 'signed 
the pledge.' The longshoreman and drayman now 
demand their money, which the landlord pays — ten 
dollars a head for decoying and bringing ashore, and 
five dollars per head to the drayman — and charges to 
the sailors' account; and all the drinks, real and 
imaginary, are also set to their account. 

"The lawyer now comes in, and, through the land- 
lord, gets all their claims against the ship, which he 
collects, either by a compromise or a suit at law, as 
may best suit the convenience of the captain, half of 
which he keeps for his trouble, and pays the other 
half over to the landlord on behalf of the sailors. 

"Next comes the shipping-master, who says, 'I 
want twenty men for the ship Water Witch, by five 
o'clock this afternoon.' 'Very good,' says the land- 
lord, 'you shall have them.' And often the very 
crew that came in the morning, are shipped before 
they recover from the first ' drunk.' When they 
wake up from their golden dreams, they find them- 
selves at sea, in a strange ship, minus their 'back' 
and ' advance wages,' and most of their clothing. A 
part of their clothing they find in their chests, and a 
bottle of whisky to keep to sober on, and to remem- 
ber their friend, the landlord, by. 

" When the sailor's bill at the boarding-house runs 



" SHANGHAEING" THE SAILOES. 229 

up to cover the ' advance,' the landlord says to him, 
6 Jack, you must ship.' ' I won't do it,' says Jack. 
' You shall do it ; you owe me a hundred dollars, and 
you must either pay it to-day, or go to sea in the 
ship Challenge.' ' O, I don't want to go to sea yet,' 
says Jack. ' O, well, never mind,' says the landlord, 
' you're a clever fellow, and you may stay at my 
house as long as you please, and pay me when you 
get ready. Come, let's take a drink.' Jack, very glad 
to be on so good terms with the landlord, walks up to 
the bar, and drinks to the health of his master. In 
ten minutes he is as insensible as a log. When he 
recovers from his mysterious sleep, he is out of sight 
of land. He is awaked by the stern command, 
' Wake up here, and go to work.' The poor fellow, 
rubbing his eyes, inquires, 'What ship is this? 
Whither bound?' k To Hong Kong.' 'How did I 
get here V ' Why, you shipped, sir,' says the master. 
' I never shipped in this ship.' ' Yes, you did, sir, and 
you must go to work without any more grumbling,' 
replies the captain sternly. ' I want to see the arti- 
cles,' says the sailor. ' Well, sir, here they are ; what 
is your name ?' says the captain. ' My name is John 
Waters.' 'There it is written on the articles in two 
places, once by the landlord, and once by the ship- 
ping-master.' ' I never signed those articles,' replies 
John. 'Xo,' replies the captain, 'you were too 
drunk to write your name, but there's your mark.' 



230 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

John puts his hand on his head and studies a mo- 
ment, and says : ' I want my advance before I go to 
work. How much was I to get V I One hundred and 
twenty-five dollars for the run, paid in advance,' re- 
plies the captain. 'And here's your account from 
the shipping office ; your bill with the boarding mas- 
ter took one hundred dollars, leaving twenty-five dol- 
lars, which he handed to me to give to you when 
you got sober.' 

"John takes the twenty-five dollars and goes to 
work. But you ask, i What did the landshark give 
to the sailor to take away his senses so suddenly?' 
It was a compound of whisky, brandy, gin, and 
opium, which, if a man drinks, he sinks into the 
Lethean stream for a dozen of hours. In days past, 
when seamen were scarce in this port, very many 
landsmen, as well as seamen, were thus drugged and 
shipped. On one occasion a shoemaker stepped to 
the bar to take a ■ drap,' and waked up the next day 
at sea, and did not get back to his business for nine 
months. A brick-mason, as I was credibly informed, 
was thus shipped in the ship Plurricane. Again, a 
drayman left his dray in the street, and went in to 
take a 'nip,' and saw his dray no more. I was 
told that a Spaniard, with his long spurs on, was 
thus shipped on the clipper Contest, Captain 
Brewster. It happened, however, that they had not 
given him quite enough, and by the time they got 



"SHANGHAIING" THE SAILORS. 231 

him aboard, he recovered and 'showed fight,' 
whereupon the shark knocked him down. But Cap- 
tain Brewster, a humane gentleman, would not suffer 
such cruelty aboard his ship, nor take the Spaniard 
against his will. So the long-spurred 'hombre' 
vamosed. 

" A man boasted that, having stabbed a fellow, he 
had escaped a term in the state prison by drugging 
and shipping his victim before the trial came on. 
How many homeward-bound miners have been thus 
drugged, and robbed, and shipped, eternity will 
^veal. 

" Again, there are some men in California who will 
not drink rum, and the Shanghaer cannot dispense 
with the services of such, and the question is, How 
will he get hold of them ? Well, sirs, they have what 
is called the 'Shanghae cigar,' which is thoroughly 
impregnated with opium and other poisons. The 
smoking of one is equal to a dose of chloroform, with 
more lasting effects. I will illustrate the practical 
importance of this cigar by a single case. 

" A landlord, lacking a man to make up a crew, met 
a German glazier on Long Wharf, with a pack of glass 
on his back, and said to him : ' Hie, my good fellow, 
don't you want a job?' ' Yes, sir.' 'I want you,' 
said the shark, ' to put some glass in the stern of that 
ship,' pointing to a ship in the stream. 'Jump 
into my boat here, and I'll take you aboard.' So off 



232 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

they went. As the German sat in the stern of the 
boat, much pleased with the prospect of a good 
job, the shark said to him, ' Will you have a cigar, 
sir ?' ' Yes.' So the glazier sat and puffed away, as 
lie used to do in his 'Fader-land,' but before they 
reached the ship he tumbled over in the bottom of 
the boat. The shark threw his pack of glass into the 
ba}^, and running ' alongside' hailed, ' On deck there, 
lower away and haul up this man.' A rope was 
lashed round him, and he was hauled up. The shark 
ran into the captain's office, saying, ' Captain, I've 
got you a first-rate sailor here. He's a little boozy to- 
day, but he'll be all right by to-morrow,' and got his 
advance. The poor German waked up at sea with a 
longer job than he had engaged for, and the worst of 
the business is, he must not only work for nothing, 
but be kicked and cnffed through the whole voyage 
for having the presumption to impose himself on the 
ship as an ' able seaman,' when he knew nothing 
about the business. These are the principal modes 
of ' drugging,' but they employ various other modes 
of ' Shanghaeing,' so that it is almost impossible for a 
man in any kind of communication with them to 
escape. 

"A sailor, who was well acquainted with their 
1 arts,' boasted that they could not Shanghae him. 
One day, a landlord said to him, ' Tom, the clipper 
ship has made up her crew, and is ready for sea; 



'• SHANGHAEING" THE SAILOKS. 233 

I am just now going to see her oft*. There are some 
of your acquaintances aboard, Bill Evens and Jim 
Jacobs ; wouldn't you like to go aboard with me and 
see them before they leave? We'll be back in a few 
minutes.' ; Yes,' replied Tom, ' I would like to see 
the boys. I have business with Bill.' 'Very well, 
jump into my boat.' So off they pulled. On deck, 
Tom ran into the forecastle to see the boys, and the 
shark ran into the captain's office, saying, ' Captain, 
I have brought you a splendid seaman, the best man 
in port; and that makes up the complement. Here's 
his name on the articles.' So he delivers the papers 
to the captain and leaves. In a few minutes Tom 
came on deck to go ashore, and lo ! the boat was 
gone. He had nothing to do but to obey orders 
and go to work. Thus to drown men's souls in 
rum, to poison, enervate, and destroy their bodies, 
and rob them of all their hard earnings, and leave 
their widowed mothers, wives, and children, who 
are dependent upon them, to beg or starve, is perfect 
sport for the 'landshark.' The great man-eater of 
the deep is satisfied to get the stray carcass of a 
sailor occasionally, but these dry land monsters must 
have soul, body, and estate of all the sailors, if 
possible. You ask, ' Why do not the sufferers have 
the fellows arrested, and brought to justice V Be- 
cause, 1. A man neither likes to confess that he 
was drunk, nor that he was so silly as to be duped 



234 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

and drugged. 2. He lost his senses so suddenly, and 
has been absent on his voyage so long, that he can- 
not think of one witness by which he can prove any- 
thing. 3. The whole fraternity is so powerful that 
the peril of an attack is more to be dreaded than a 
Shanghaeing. 

"Arrests, however, have been frequently made 
here, as you are all aware, and sometimes justice is, in 
part, dealt out to them, but it is very hard to get evi- 
dence to convict them. You say again, 'Surely these 
California landsharks must be the worst in the world?' 
I know not, but I have heard of some Yerj bad ones 
in all our large ports. Captain E. told me but a few 
days since, of the mate of an English ship which 
came to New-Orleans, who was drugged, and the 
next day found himself at sea in a strange American 
ship, shipped as a common sailor before the mast. 
Another case he gave of a man who was put aboard, 
it was supposed, ' dead drunk,' and his ' advance 
wages' drawn, but the next morning, when the cap- 
tain tried to wake his man up, he found that he was 
dead, and had been so for a day or two. But you 
inquire again, ' Why do the sailors put themselves 
into the power of these fellows, and allow themselves 
to be so imposed upon V 

"By the attractive power, on the sailor, of false 
sympathy, promises of money-making, liquor, old ac- 
quaintanceships, bad women, etc., he is induced to 



" SHANGHAEING" THE SAILORS. 235 

desert his ship, and go to the house of his dear 
friend, the sailor landlord. According to law, as a 
deserter he can be arrested, and sent back to his 
ship, and made to perform the rest of the voyage for 
which he shipped without wages. So there the 
landlord ' gets him.' ' None of your cutting up 
about me. I'll tell your master where you are, and 
have you back on that ship before you can say " Jack 
Robinson." ' The crest-fallen sailor ' gives in,' and 
is as humble as a whipped dog. Again, the landlord 
says to the shipping-master, 'You must ship your 
men from our houses. If you don't, we won't let you 
have a man when you want them. And you are to 
give us no trouble about those bills against the 
sailors.' The shipping-master is dependent, and 
must work into the hands of the ' sharks,' or be cut 
out of business. Now, then, if a decent sailor has 
independence of character enough to resist all the 
other snares, and selects a good boarding-house, 
when he goes to the shipping-office to ship, the 
shipping-master says to him, ' Where do you board, 

sir?' 'Up town, sir, at Widow 's.' 'We don't 

need men now ; you can leave, sir,' says the ship- 
ping-master. 

" The poor fellows cannot ship except through the 
shipping-office; and they won't have him there be- 
cause he don't board in the right place. Now there 
are exceptions to the rules of the trade we have ex- 



236 STIIEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

hibited, and there are among boarding-masters some 
pretty decent men ; but we have here revealed, we 
believe, truthfully, as the result of long personal ob- 
servation, and good authority, the general workings 
of the system of Shanghaeing. 

"This system, the same in principle in all large 
ports, varies in its practical operations according to 
local circumstances. The term Shanghaeing is, as 
we remarked in the commencement, of Californian 
origin, and was introduced in this way : 

"A few years ago, as many of you remember, it was 
very difficult to make up a crew in this port, especially 
for any place from which they could not get a ready 
passage back to this land of gold. Crews could be 
made up for Oregon, Washington Territory, the 
Islands, and the ports of South America ; for from 
any of these places they could readily return. Even 
from Canton, they could stand a pretty good chance of 
a direct 'run' back; but from 'Shanghae, in China,' 
there were seldom ever any ships returning to Cali- 
fornia. To get back, therefore, from Shanghae, they 
must make the voyage round the world. That was 
getting quite too far away from the 'placers' of our 
mountains. Hence to get 'crews' for Shanghae, 
except enough of 'Lascars' to get the ship to sea, 
they depended, almost exclusively, on drugging the 
men. Crews for Shanghae were, therefore, said to be 
' Shanghaed ;' and the term came into general use, to 



237 



represent this whole system of drugging, extortion, 
and cruelty. 

" Now in the light of all these facts, especially the 
desertion of all the crews immediately on the arrival of 
the vessels, you may see how difficult it is for a seamen's 
chaplain to gain an extensive influence over the mass 
of seamen in this city. In any other port, the preacher 
can board the vessels as they arrive; make the ac- 
quaintance of the whole crew, master and men; in- 
vite them to his house, and to his Bethel ; and thus 
gain an influence over them for good. But here, 
when we board a ship, we And none who came in 
her but the captain ; and though he, as a gentleman, 
will treat you kindly, still he is mad, and complain- 
ing of the landlords, and lawyers, and sailors, and the 
port ; and you cannot get in the neighborhood of his 
heart, with any kind of California moral influence. 
He don't believe there is anything good about it. 

"The seamen have gone under the dominion of the 
Shanghaeing fraternity, and cannot be reached, only 
as we ' take them on the wing, 1 by preaching in the 
streets. In this way, through the mercy of the Lord, 
we have seen many of them brought to God, and 
happily converted; and we have, under all these 
discouragements, maintained a self-sustaining Bethel 
for seamen, in this port, for four years. 

" In conclusion, the question arises, ' What can be 
done to remedy these evils?' 



238 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" First We want a good 'Seaman's Home,' under 

the direction of a good board of trustees. Such an 

institution not only provides for the shipwrecked 

and destitute mariner, but furnishes a good ' home ' 

for all well-disposed seamen, where they can enjoy 

the elevating influences of good social society, bow 

at the family altar every night and morning, and 

be amply protected against the sharks. A good 

home, properly conducted, will so compete with the 

common sailor boarding-houses, as to hold in check 

their diabolic plans and purposes, and cause them to 

imitate the ' Home,' in order to retain custom. In 

short, it works an outward reformation among the 

£ sharks,' and insures pretty good treatment to sailors 

generally. The ' Home ' is the place where shippers 

and captains of vessels, who do not wish to risk their 

ships and cargoes in the hands of drunken crews, 

can always go for sober, reliable, 'able seamen,' to 

man their ships ; and there a pious shipping-master 

can successfully compete with such as would work into 

the hands of the sharks. Such an institution I have 

tried hard to establish in this port; but, owing to an 

extraordinary train of reverses which, during the 

year past, have befallen our city, my plans have been 

frustrated, greatly to my sorrow.* 

* A society has been recently organized in this city, for tho 
purpose of establishing a good Seaman's Home in this port. I 
sincerely hope they will succeed beyond their most sanguine 
expectations. September 25, 1856. 



"SHANGHAEING 1 ' THE SAILORS. 239 

"/Second. We want, in my opinion, a reform in the 
shipping laws, and practice, in regard to advance 
wages. The ; advance' was designed, no doubt, to 
work for the sailor's benefit by giving him, if poor, 
the means of supplying himself with clothing for the 
voyage. But, receiving his advance in the form of a 
check on the shipping office, as we have shown, to be 
paid after he has gone to sea, lest he should use the 
money and refuse to go, he is obliged to go to some- 
body who will trust him to get his check discounted. 
He generally has no friend who has money but his 
dear friend, the landshark, who takes the check, and, 
if he gives him any money at all, it is the remnant 
left after an extortionary discount has been taken off 
the face of the check. In most cases, I should say, 
the advance is a dead loss to the sailor, and, in very 
many cases, a serious injury ; for he often has to take 
it all out in bad whisky. If the advance wages 
were cut off, it would be necessary for shippers and 
captains of vessels to lay in a little store of clothing 
for the crew, to meet emergences at sea, and also to 
see that their families were provided for, so far as 
they might suffer by the want of the advance. Then, 
if necessary to have shipping-offices and shipping- 
masters, as now, let also a copy of the articles be kept 
aboard in the captain's office, so that good seamen 
can go directly to the master of the ship and engage 
to sail with him, just as any other class of men do in 



240 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

tlieir respective departments of business. "Why 
should every honest seamen be subjected to the sus- 
picious routine of the present system ? 

"Third. Let landsmen, and especially Christians, 
male and female, extend the hand of friendship to 
men of the sea, and manifest true Christian sympathy 
toward them. Let them labor as diligently for their 
physical improvement and the salvation of their souls 
as do the landsharks for their ruin. Much patience 
will be required for this work ; for the sailor, so often 
wronged ashore, is very suspicious. 

" An old ' tar' said once, l There's a merchant 
who respects the Bible. The Bible says, take the 
strangers in. That's the commandment he keeps; 
for he took me in on a pea jacket' The poor 
stranger from the sea has been ' taken in' so often 
ashore, that he, with too much truth, utters the com- 
plaint of exiled David : ' I looked on my right hand, 
but refuge failed me ; no man would know me, no 
man cared for my soul.' 

" We want good bethels for seamen ; but we want 
more especially an earnest, patient manifestation of 
personal Christian sympathy shown to all seamen 
while in port. Convince a sailor that you are his 
true friend, and he is the most confiding, teach- 
able man in the world. You can, by the grace of 
God, lead him to the cross of Jesus, and then to 
heaven." 



"SHANGHAEING" THE SAILORS. 241 

At the close of the address I sung the " Dying 
Sailor's Lament :" 

"The frown of the night-storm had scarcely blown by, 

And the ocean was still in its roar ; 
The wind had not ceased from disturbing the sky, 

When I ventured to walk on the shore. 

" I look'd on the sea, and a wreck had been toss'd 

On the breakers that roll'd from beneath, 
And bodies, still throbbing, were wash'd on the coast, 

And lay group'd in the stillness of death. 

" I sought, from among the pale corpses around, 

For some symptoms of life, but in vain ; 
When I heard, in the distance, an indistinct sound 

Of a voice, that seem'd utter'd in pain : 

" 'Farewell, giddy world,' it exclaim'd, with a sigh, 

' Disregarded and slighted by thee ; 
For my country I've fought, for my country I die, 

But my country has cared not for me. 

" ' For thee, native land, my life I have spent, 
And have spill'd my heart's blood in thy wars, 

And yet, though your missions so far have been sent, 
You've neglected the souls of your tars. 

4 " We were left on the brink of destruction to sleep, 

And no voice hath aroused us away ; 
No arm was extended to collect the poor sheep 

That had wander'd so sadly astray. 
16 



242 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" ' And now I must go to the doom that I dread, 

Through ages that ever must roll, 
With a life of iniquity heap'd on my head, 

Yet there's "no man hath cared for my soul." 

" He ceased, and I sought him among the pale dead, 

While he yet had the hour to repent, 
When a heart-rending groan, that yet thrills through my 
head, 

Was the close of his hopeless lament. 

" Or the cold shore extended I found him at last, 

But his spirit had ceased to be there ; 
His brow was still frowning, his hands were still clasp'd, 

And he look'd the mute form of despair." 



JAMES KING, OF WM. 243 



CHAPTEK XLV. 

JAMES KING, OF WM., AND HIS MORAL PLATFORM. 

After all that has been said and written about 
James King, of Wm., very many of his best friends 
are anxious for further information in regard to his 
religious faith and prospects. 

Again, the deep and almost universal sympathy 
and excitement, not only in this city, but throughout 
the state, produced by the assassination of Mr. King, 
is believed to be not mainly owing to personal 
attachment, great as it may justly have been, but to 
the fact that he was the people's exponent of many 
vital principles and questions of reform in California. 
It, therefore, becomes our duty to define as nearly as 
we can, the moral aspect and bearings of this mighty 
tide of public feeling, and voluminous expression of 
public sentiment ; and to inquire how they may best 
subserve the great ends of moral reform in this state. 

It is not my purpose here to repeat my views in re- 
gard to the organization and operations of theYigilance 
Committee, nor to reiterate what has been so truly 



244 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

and so eloquently said in the public journals, of the 
excellences and usefulness of Mr. King, only so far as 
may be necessary to state and to illustrate our positions. 

I wish first to call attention to Mr. King's moral 
platform, to which the thousands, who vie with each 
other in honoring his memory, have tacitly commit- 
ted themselves ; and, secondly, to his religious faith 
and prospects. Among the leading positions of his 
platform are the following : 

1. Anti-dueling. 

Dueling, that bloody code which demands the 
violation of every other law, the surrender of every 
ennobling social and moral principle, and the sacri- 
fice of life. The man who submits to its claims is 
entitled, as a reward for his loyalty, to have his heart 
perforated with a discharge of cold lead, his brow 
encircled with a w T reath of clotted blood, and to have 
inscribed on his tomb-stone, if he happens to have a 
friend left with respect enough for him to erect one to 
his memory, " Fell in a duel." None who gaze upon 
it envy his "honors," and many exclaim, "He died 
as the fool dieth." Strange as it may seem, this hor- 
rible code has obtained, to an alarming extent, in 
almost every state of our glorious confederacy. The 
State of Illinois is an exception. In a duel fought 
there, in the early settlement of that state, one of the 
combatants was killed ; the other was tried, con- 
demned, and executed for murder. That ended the 



JAMES KING, OF WM. 245 

" honorable code" in the State of Illinois. That con- 
vention of California pioneers, which frai^d our 
State Constitution, wisely ignored this barbarous 
code, and pronounced it a sin against the state to 
resort to it, by which a man would forever forfeit the 
privilege of holding any office in the gift of the peo- 
ple. Had we honored that law, it would have hon- 
ored us, and saved many precious lives. But it has 
been utterly disregarded. 

The case of Mr. Gilbert, a leading editor in our 
city, is fresh in the memory of many of you ; shot 
down by a member of the Legislature, who resumed 
his seat unrebuked, and was soon afterward promoted 
to a high official station, which he has held nearly 
ever since. 

Colonel Woodlief, poor fellow! He used to hear 
me preach on the Plaza, and I have seen him weep 
under the appeals of truth like a child. O, had he 
yielded to the gracious impulses of the Divine Spirit 
upon his heart, he might have been a living, happy 
man to-day ; but he stood up as a target to be shot % 
at, and was suddenly launched into eternity. Their 
name is "legion" who have engaged in this miserable 
business. 

The King platform repudiates wholly this barbar- 
ous code. James King had the moral courage to 
expose the moral cowardice of such as felt it neces- 
sary to resort to such means to manifest their courage 



246 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

and vindicate their honor. When challenged, it was 
enougWfor him to say, that he sustained relations to 
God he was not at liberty to violate, and would not 
behave so dastardly as to rush unbidden into the 
presence of God, and leave his wife and helpless chil- 
dren to mourn at once his folly and his loss. Does 
not such a refusal reflect more honor upon a man 
than a hundred duels could possibly do ? 

I will simply enumerate other prominent posi- 
tions advocated by Mr. King, as, 

2. Anti-gambling. 

3. To drive out of the city all houses of prostitution. 

4. To expose "corruption in high places." 

5. To purify the ballot-box, and promote none but 
honest men to ojlce. 

6. To furnish employment for the industrious poor 
who seek a home in our new country. 

7. To promote public schools and educate the 
masses. 

We would respectfully submit an amendment to 
Mr. King's position on this subject, namely, That the 
Bible, not as a sectarian book, but the revela- 
tion of God to man, be honored with a place in our 
common schools. Any system of education is radi- 
cally defective which does not teach the moral law, 
and acquaint the pupil with the world's Redeemer. 

8-. To oppose infidelity of every form, and vindicate 
the Bible as the word of God. Let adulterers, and 



JAMES KING, OF TO 247 

robbers, and murderers believe and feel that no moral 
responsibility attaches to their conduct, that they can 
satiate their corrupt passions and execute their mali- 
cious purposes, and that if they can only manage to 
escape the action of criminal law, which they always 
think they can do, they have nothing else to dread, 
and you thereby " break the bands of God asunder," 
and sweep away the best safeguards of society. The 
following extract from the Bulletin of January 26, 
will exhibit. Mr. King's position on this subject: 
"A notice of a dinner to be given in this city in cele- 
bration of a birthday of a noted infidel was sent to us 
yesterday for publication, which we declined. In 
our younger days, and before the down had fairly left 
our chin, we were foolish enough to entertain some 
doubts as to the truth of our holy religion. For some 
three years we devoted as much of our time, after 
leaving the counting-house, as we could, to the study 
of the Bible, and such books as treated of it. As 
before stated, we are not a member of any Church, 
but the result, of that three years' study has been 
worth more to us than all the rest of our life, and 
we would not exchange the belief we have in the 
existence of God for all the wealth this world can 
produce." Will the masses of California, who have 
taken position with Mr. King on this platform, stand 
to it, and, by the utmost efforts of all legitimate influ- 
ence, promote its ends 1 I may add, that tlje people, 



248 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRAK CISCO. 

by their demonstrations against crime within the past 
fortnight, bear unmistakable testimony to the fact of 
the deep depravity of the human heart; and, secondly, 
to the necessity of retributive justice, as indispensable 
in promoting good government. If necessary in the 
administration of human governments, is it not neces- 
sary in the administration of the Divine? And if 
God certainly will "take vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ," then we see the necessity of 
reconciliation with God through the redemption 
which is in Christ Jesus, and a reformation of heart 
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost ; by which these judgments are averted, 
and we become " fellow-citizens with the saints, and 
of the household of God." This is the only effectual 
means of reforming society. Yiolent outward reme- 
dies are sometimes necessary, as it is necessary to cut 
off a growing cancer ; but the root is still there, and 
it will grow out again. The individual hearts com- 
posing society, must be regenerated by the grace of 
God, and thus the purified fountain will send forth a 
pure stream, " the good tree will bring forth good 
fruit." Will you admit these conclusions, and main- 
tain these positions? "We now hasten to our con- 
cluding task. 

On the twenty-fourth day of February, 1843, a 
young man of twenty-one years, in Georgetown, D. C, 



JAMES KING, OF WM. 249 

sought in his closet, and there obtained, the pardoning 
mercy of God. Two days after his conversion he 
presented himself to the minister of the Methodist 
Protestant Church in that city, as a candidate for 
membership. His aged, pious parents had been 
members of that Church from its organization, and of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years 
before. The minister said to our young friend that, 
as he was only known to the public as a haughty, 
worldly young man, he wanted him to give proof of 
the genuineness of his repentance by kneeling at the 
altar as a public seeker of religion. But the young 
man objected, saying that his sins were a matter 
between him and his God, and he had repented and 
obtained pardon, as he believed, and could not now 
go forward as a seeker of that which he had already 
obtained. 

" Will you then," said the minister, " stand in 
presence of the congregation, and answer such ques- 
tions as I may ask ?" 

" Yes," he replied ; " I have no objections to that," 
and did accordingly, and was admitted. 

His father had often said of him, because of his 
uniqueness of character, that "he was a drove by 
himself;" and it was a matter of doubt in many 
minds whether or not he would ever become a very 
docile sheep in the ecclesiastical flock, for he appeared 
to be a- peculiar original thinker, and always spoke 



250 STREET PREACHING IN SAN 'FRANCISCO. 

and acted as he thought. He went to the class to 
which his minister assigned him, and when it 
came to his turn to speak, he arose and said, in 
substance : 

" Brethren and sisters, I have been listening attent- 
ively to all that has been said during the progress of 
this meeting, and I cannot say, upon the whole, that I 

am pleased with it. Brother there says that 

he is ' a great sinner, one of the vilest of the vile.' 
Now, I don't believe that, nor do I believe that he 
thinks so himself; and if a man were to come in 
here from the street, and say of him what he has 

asserted, he would hit him. And Sister there 

says that she 'sins dayly in thought, word, and deed.' 
I think, friends, when we come to class we ought to 
tell our experience, and tell nothing but the truth, 
and be consistent. I thank the Lord that I am not a 
vile sinner; but having sought and obtained the 
remission of all my sins, I stand here a free man in 
Jesus Christ, and, by the help of God, I don't intend 
to sin any more." 

His very sensible, though severe remarks gave 
offense ; complaint was made to the minister against 
the intractable young member, and he was called to 
answer. He was admonished and borne with, but a 
reciprocal dissatisfaction between himself and the 
Church was kept up, till finally he left it, but contin- 
ued a God-fearing and praying man, and became a 



251 



regular attendant, though not a member of the Pres- 
byterian Church. 

In the winter of 1843-4, he commenced the study 
of theology. In addition to his duties to his young 
family and his business as a banker's clerk, he 
applied himself diligently to the study of the Bible, 
Greek Testament, and other theological works for 
several years. That young man was James King, of 
Win; 

It is doubtless to this period of his history that he 
refers when he says, in the quotation we have given 
from an editorial in the Bulletin : " For some three 
years we devoted as much of our time, after leaving 
the counting-house, as we could, to the study of the 
Bible and such books as treated of it. The result of 
that three years' study has been worth more to us than 
all the rest of our life." There is also an evident 
allusion to the same period of his history, embracing 
his conversion, in his reply to " a friend," in the Bul- 
letin of January 26, wherein he says : " Some twelve 
or fourteen years ago, when we were moved to inquire 
into those things which make for our eternal good, we 
read some Quaker books," etc. 

Owing, probably, to his intense application to 
business and study, his health gave way, and he was 
led to seek its restoration on these healthful shores as 
early as 1848. These details, though not all matter 
of personal knowledge, were derived by me from 



252 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

a credible source, with permission to use them ; 
and we have introduced them for the unpublished 
information they contain, and because they are char- 
acteristic of the man whose loss we mourn to-day. 

In California he never joined any Church, assign- 
ing as a reason, that his peculiarities were such, that 
he could not, in every particular, affiliate with any 
one Church, while his general hearty good-will for 
the cause of God led him to help and encourage all. 
His catholicity on this subject is manifested in "a 
Church article " of the Bulletin, of February 25. We 
insert a short extract as follows : " We do not med- 
dle with the creed of any Church. We view them all 
as working by different means and ways to the same 
end. At one end of the line we place the Eoman 
Catholic, and at the opposite extremity the Unitarian 
Church, all the others being between these two." Then 
speaking of the progressive spirit of the Gospel, and 
the enlightening effect on the human mind, even of 
sectarian controversy, and the assaults of infidelity, 
he concludes in these words : " And the benefit of 
this advance in Christian knowledge is not enjoyed 
by the Church membership alone, but by those also 
in Christendom everywhere, who do not belong to 
any Church. By the preaching of the Gospel the 
world is better off to-day than it was some hundred 
years back. Morality is better defined, and gains 
strength just in proportion as the Church flourishes. 



JAMES KING, OF WM. 253 

Let brotherly feeling between the members of the 
different Churches continue to be cultivated, as it is 
now getting to be, and Christians will bear and for- 
bear with each other for the sake of the common 
cause, which may defy the assaults of the scoffer and 
the infidel." 

Mr. King's moral character and conduct in Califor- 
nia, though not decidedly Christian, would, I believe, 
have reflected more credit on any Church than that 
of a large proportion of her members, and his influ- 
ence as a journalist has extended itself more widely,- 
in that he was not tied to any party, political or 
religious. His case is unique, and does not furnish 
a precedent to be followed by the masses in regard 
to the duty of Church-fellowship. 

But the question arises, Why should such a man 
come to such an end? Or, in the language of his 
bereaved widow, who manifested the most perfect self- 
possession from the time he received the fatal shot 
till his spirit departed, when, bending over his cold 
clay, she said, as she gave vent to the pent-up grief 
of her agonized heart, "I shall not disturb you now, 
my husband," and then exclaimed, " Why did they 
hill you ? Why did they kill my noble husband V 

Upon that question we remark, that the essential 
cause of death exists in our moral relation to God. 
When we have finished the work assigned us in our 
probation, or filled up the measure of iniquity, the 



254 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Divine warrant is issued, " Set thy house in order, 
for thou shalt die and not live ;" then any one of the 
ten thousand ostensible causes, or occasions of death, 
are sufficient to " loose the silver cord, and break the 
golden bowl." Hence God frequently suffers such to 
fall by the malice of their fellows. The murderous 
purpose, it may be, had long rankled, in the heart, but 
while God's protecting shield was around the person of 
the victim, it could not effect its deadly aim. God has 
suffered the best of men in all ages, men of whom the 
world was not worthy, prophets, apostles, and even 
Jesus himself, to die by the hand of violence. And 
now the question recurs, " Why is this ?" First to 
teach us, that the rewards of virtue and vice are not 
meted out in this world. Second, to give us an ex- 
hibit of the deep depravity of the human soul, that we 
may the better "justify the ways of God to men;" 
that we may realize the necessity of the provision of 
mercy in the Gospel ; that we may appreciate and 
accept the atonement through the blood of Jesus as 
the only source of purification for our polluted hearts. 
There are doubtless many other reasons justified 
by infinite wisdom. Why could not the prayers of 
the good avail to save the life of James King? There 
were certainly many prayers offered up, and much 
hope entertained. Christians have not lived right in 
California, and hence their faith is feeble, even when 
they have a positive promise on which to exercise it; 



255 



but in this case they had no promise. I said to Mr. 
King's boy of twelve years : " You must ask your 
Father in heaven, for the sake of Jesus Christ, to 
make your father well." He looked up at me in- 
stantly, saying : " I did." Soon after I made the 
same request of a younger brother, and in the same 
prompt manner he made the same reply : u I did, 
and I think he will do it." Thought I, here are 
"two agreed," and here alone is a lever of faith suf- 
ficient to raise a dying father, if they but had a ful- 
crum of Divine promise. I may ask with unwaver- 
ing confidence for pardon, holiness, and heaven, for I 
have immutable promises on which to rest my faith. 
I may legitimately ask for worldly good, health, or 
the restoration of my friend, but unless the Holy 
Spirit reveal a Divine assurance in my heart, I have 
no certain foundation for my faith. I think it prob- 
able the good people of California had leverage 
power sufficient to have raised their hero, but they 
had no fulcrum. His work was done. I reported 
myself to James King immediately after he was shot. 
He asked me to stay by him, and taking his ring 
off his finger, he handed it to me, saying : " Take 
care of this." " For your wife ?" " Yes." I studied 
his wants, and watched by his bedside day and night, 
with alternate intervals of rest, till he died. I will 
not go into a detail of the incidents of that most anx- 
ious week. He suffered much, but was invariably 



256 STEEET PREACHING IN SAN FJRANCISCO. 

calm, patient, and self-possessed, till the morning of 
his departure, when he was a little flighty. He was 
a sincere penitent before God, said his " only peace 
was in the mercy of God through the merit of Jesus 
Christ." He asked me to pray with him at different 
times. On one occasion, rising from my knees, he 
said: "Give me your hand," and squeezed and shook 
it warmly. Speaking to him of the prayers of his 
boys, I remarked : " It is a great blessing for a man, 
in the day of peril, to have boys to pray for him." 
" Yes," said he, manifesting much pleasure in the 
thought. The only time I heard him use the name 
of his assassin, he said : " If I die, I don't want them 
to kill Casey." Manifesting the spirit of the com- 
mand, "Love your enemies, and pray for them Avhich 
despitefully use and persecute you." He several 
times spoke of " Charlotte and the little ones," with 
great affection. Many thousands in California will 
long mourn the loss of James King, of Win., but we 
" sorrow not as those who have no hope." 



THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 257 



CHAPTEE XLYI. 

THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 

On Sunday afternoon, the first day in June, 1856, 
as I was crying to a multitude on Washington-street, 
"Be ye reconciled to God," the Yigilance Committee 
arrested C. P. D., alias u Dutch Charley." From the 
place of his arrest to "Fort Yigilance," a full quarter 
of a mile, there seemed to be a flowing sea of excited 
humanity. When this great multitude began to dis- 
perse, I took a favorable position to catch the ebbing 
tide, and sung : 

" There is a fountain fill'd with blood 

Drawn from Immanuel's veins, 
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, 

Lose all their guilty stains," etc. 

And then spoke, in substance, as follows : " I have 
something of great importance to say to all Yigilance 
Committee men, and to all anti- Yigilance Committee 
men. The Prophet Zechariah, contemplating the 
saving power of the Gospel of Jesus, said : ' In that 
day there shall be a fountain opened in the house of 

17 



258 STEEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin 
and for uncleanness.' A purifying fountain for the 
polluted souls of sinners, blessed be God ! Do we 
not need an application of some regenerating power, 
some cleansing process to make us what we ought to 
be — good citizens and good Christians? You all cry 
out, ' Reform ! reform !' But do not imagine that by 
ridding the city of a few murderers, thieves, and 
\ ballot-box stuffers,' you will reform society. It 
may be necessary to cut off the excrescences — the 
great cancer warts of society, but unless an efficient 
remedy be applied to the roots, they will grow out 
again. Our business now is not with the rogues un- 
hung which infest the city, but with you individu- 
ally. To reform society, we must have the individual 
members composing society reformed. Have you 
not all sinned, and are you not unclean in the sight 
of God to-day ? 

" Are you an infidel ? If so, do you not acknowl- 
edge some standard of right, some rule of moral con- 
duct by which we should be governed ? Have you 
lived up to that rule ? Have you not violated it a 
thousand times? By the law of your own conscience 
you are a sinner before God, and have need of his 
pardoning mercy. 

"Are you a Mohammedan ? You have broken the 
laws of the Koran ; you are verily guilty in the sight 
of God. 



THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 259 

"Are you a Jew? What have you done with 
your ceremonial law and your sacrifices ? Have you 
kept that true standard of morals which God gave to 
Moses, the Decalogue ? O ye money -loving, Sab- 
bath-breaking, God-forgetting, Christ-rejecting Jews, 
' How shall ye escape the damnation of hell V 

"Are you a Catholic? When have you been to 
confession ? You have made yourself so vile by will- 
ful, persevering rebellion against God, that the 
blessed Virgin would be ashamed to own you, if she 
were here to-day. You are so polluted that she 
would not look at you. 

"Are you a Protestant? You believe the Bible, 
the Old and New Testament. You take the ten com- 
mandments as the great moral 'straight-edge' by 
which to find the irregularities of heart and life. 
Have you lived up to the line ? Do you now love 
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, 
and strength? and do you love your neighbor as 
yourself? and do you, according to the law of Christ, 
' love your enemies, and pray for them that despite- 
fully use you and persecute you?' You know very 
well you do not. You love worldly pleasure, and 
sin, and yourself. You love those neighbors only 
who flatter your vanity and contribute to gratify 
your fleshly lusts. You don't love your enemies a 
bit ; and as for praying for them, you do not even 
pray for your own poor soul. You are, indeed, 



260 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

guilty and defiled in the sight of God, and angels, 
and men. But if you do not all acknowledge the 
authority of the moral law, or if you do not perceive 
its spiritual import and application, I will try you by 
another test, another stand-point, from which you 
may try to measure the distance to that 'far country' 
into which you have wandered. 

"Look here ! Do you see this beautiful little girl ?" 
at the same time patting the cheek and smoothing 
the hair of a lovely little girl of about three years, on 
the knee of a gentleman by my side. " On these little 
cheeks the blush of guilty shame never rose ; the lit- 
tle heart that throbs within this breast beats in har- 
mony with God ; no stain of willful sin defiles her 
conscience. * Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' 
What blessed innocence, humility, and confiding 
simplicity. Look at her." A streetful of sinners 
looked, and many wept. "Here is where you all 
once were ; every one of you had then the innocence 
of this little girl, and were members of Christ's spirit- 
ual family. Had you died then, as some of your lit- 
tle brothers and sisters did, with them you would 
have gone to dwell with Jesus and holy angels ; but 
where are you now? O how far you have gone 
from home. I might justly challenge the mathemati- 
cal skill of the angel Gabriel to compute the distance 
of your flight, or number the steps of sinful departure 
from infantile innocence to your present wretched 



THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 261 

condition. 0, how your sins have multiplied, espe- 
cially since you came to California. You have been 
all this time engaged in the miserable business of 
1 treasuring up unto yourselves wrath against the day 
of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of 
God.' Now what are you going to do about it? 
Something must be done, and done immediately, or 
you are ruined forever. You have to get back to the 
state of this little girl. ' Except ye be converted and 
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. 5 " 

I then pressed the invitation to all to come to the 
" fountain opened," the fountain of redeeming mercy 
in Christ, by a variety of arguments and illustrations, 
as the Spirit gave me utterance. Good order and 
great seriousness prevailed throughout the assembly. 
Eternity will reveal the fruit. 



262 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XLYIL 

THE MISSIONARY TO NINEVEH. 

On the eighth of June, 1856, at half past four in 
the afternoon, I took my stand on the steps of the 
Pacific Mail Steamship Company's Office, in full 
view of "Fort Yigilance," the great center of attrac- 
tion in this city for some weeks past. 

When a boy, I sometimes went hunting, and 
always tried to go where the game was. My com- 
mission reads, "Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the Gospel to every creature ;" I therefore always 
look out to see where the greatest number of those 
creatures congregate, and try to take every advant- 
age of "wind and tide," so as to bear the mes- 
sage of mercy to the greatest possible number, 
under the most favorable circumstances the case will 
allow. 

On this occasion I got the " windward" of a large, 
attentive audience. The subject of discourse was the 
great reformation in ancient Nineveh, under the 
preaching of Jonah; just such a reformation as we 
need here in San Francisco. 






THE MISSIONARY TO NINEVEH. 263 

Speaking of the instrumentality by which the 
great work was brought about, the discourse ran 
as follows : 

" God wanted a missionary to go and preach to the 
Ninevites, and called to this responsible work a 
Hebrew by the name of Jonah, saying to him : 
' Arise, and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry 
against it ; for their wickedness is come up before 
me.' But Jonah, like Moses, his great ancestor, 
begged to be excused. He probably, in effect, said; 
4 Lord, I am " slow of speech," and cannot succeed as 
a preacher ; the distance is great, and I know not that 
I should live to see Nineveh ; and then, if thy servant 
should stand up in the streets of that wicked city, the 
people would stone him to death. And even if I 
should get there safely, and preach successfully, and 
the people should repent, thou wilt not bring upon 
them the judgments of thy word. "For thou art a 
gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of 
great kindness, and repentest thee, of the evil." So 
the people will call me a lying impostor, and per- 
haps take away my life ; and then relapse into 
idolatry worse than ever. Lord, I cannot go to 
Nineveh. Be merciful to thy servant, I cannot go.' 
"When he found that the Lord would not release him, 
he determined to get out of the way. Some young 
men, when called to preach the Gospel, suddenly 
take a notion to get married, and go into some com- 



264 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

plicated co-partnership business ; so binding them- 
selves that they cannot honorably withdraw for a 
term of years. But ' Jonah rose np to flee into 
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.' Tarshish is 
believed to be the same as Tartessus, in Spain, near 
the Straits of Gibraltar, at the opposite point of 
the compass from Nineveh. Darkness immediately 
follows disobedience. Jonah thought : < O ! if I can 
only get a passage to Tarshish, the Lord will not find 
me, and I will be free from this dreadful responsibility.' 
So many of you thought when you started for Cali- 
fornia. You said in your hearts, 'I have been teased 
so much about going to Nineveh, or doing some other 
unpleasant business for the Church, I'll go off to Cali- 
fornia, where I can do as I please, without let or hin- 
derance. I'll have done with father's rebukes, and 
mother's entreaties and tears, and this everlasting 
preaching about hell and judgment. I'll leave all 
responsibility behind, and I'll be a free man for once in 
my life.' And lo ! ye find that God is in California too, 
and he has been speaking to you by various provi- 
dences, in thunder tones ; and the same unwelcome 
Gospel truths and threatenings of future retribution 
peal forth unexpectedly upon you, even from the cor- 
ners of the streets ; and you are so disappointed in the 
felicitous freedom of California life, that you begin to 
feel, ' O that I had a mother's prayers and counsels to 
guide and comfort me as in other years.' I will tell 



THE MISSIONARY TO NINEVEH. 265 

you, my friend, God has not done with you yet. You 
had better look well to your ways. 

" So Jonah went down to Joppa, the nearest sea- 
port to Jerusalem, and, walking along the beach, he 
saw a sign on a ship : ' For Tarshish ; will positively 
sail at the sixth hour to-day.' Good, thought he, I've 
just come at the nick of time. Though guilty and 
downcast, he now put on rather a hopeful, courageous 
appearance ; and though a little frightened at the 
sound of his own voice, he hailed pretty well for a 
6 runaway,' ' Ship a-hoy ! Is the captain aboard ?' 
c Yes,' replied the officer of the deck, ' walk aboard, 
sir. You'll find the captain there in his office, sir.' 
With a slow, hesitating step, Jonah entered the 
captain's room. 'Well, stranger,' said the captain, 
4 what can I do for you V ' I- — I — I wa-want to go to 
Tarshish, sir.' ' Yery well, sir ; we sail to-day at the 
sixth hour.' ' What is the fare, captain?' ' Thirty 
pieces of silver.' So he paid the fare, and went 
down into it, (the steerage,) to go with them unto 
Tarshish, from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 
immediately ' turned in,' and fell into a sound sleep. 
When conscience is gagged by violence, and its voice 
drowned by the whirlwind of passion, you generally 
get one sound, though guilty, sleep, before it is able 
to rally and reassert its injured prerogatives. But 
rally it will ; and, like a lioness robbed of her whelps, 
will pounce upon you, and tear you asunder. I had 



266 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

rather fall into the clutches of a grizzly bear, than into 
the foldings of a guilty conscience, fully awake. 
They had been under sail but a few hours, when 'the 
Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there 
was a mighty tempest, so that the ship was like to be 
broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried 
every man unto his god.' These poor heathen sailors 
had not learned the modern art of explaining God out of 
the universe, by some metaphysical disquisition on the 
laws of nature. These were the facts in their simple 
minds : The storm rages, the gods are angry ; there 
is a cause. We have sinned ; retributive justice is 
awake. Some one of us has committed a very great 
sin. "Who is the guilty man ? Let him be delivered 
over to justice, that we all perish not. ' Captain, 
where is that suspicious-looking stranger that en- 
gaged passage yesterday V ' I don't know. I'll see.' 
The captain ran ' down into the sides of the ship,' to 
Jonah's 'bunk,' and pulled off the blanket; and 
there 'he lay, and was fast asleep.' And the 'ship- 
master' cried, 'What meanest thou, O sleeper? 
Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will 
think upon us, that we perish not.' By the time 
Jonah got on deck, the crew had prepared to cast 
lots, and thus detect the guilty man. 'And they 
said every one to his fellow, Come, let us cast lots, 
that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon 
us. So they cast lots; and the lot fell upon Jonah.' 



THE MISSIONARY TO NINEVEH. 267 

" Poor deserter. You may imagine how dreadfully 
sea-sick he was, and how his conscience lashed him, 
and how his guilt exposed him to the scrutiny of the 
crew, and to the vengeance of God and man. So 
they pressed the question, 'Stranger, tell us what 
thou hast done to provoke the gods, and bring all 
this evil upon us? What is thine occupation? and 
whence comest thou ? What is thy country ? and of 
what people art thou?' And Jonah told them all 
about it, his only relief being in confessing the truth. 

"A young man, whose name I need not mention, 
left the Eastern States and came to California for the 
sole purpose of concealing his sins and shame. After 
wandering a few months in the mountains, he came 
to San Francisco sick. In a dreary room in Dr. 
Shuler's hospital, I saw him struggle with death. 
The nickering light of a small lamp seemed only to 
make the darkness more perceptible, and render the 
scene more gloomy. His piteous groans echoed in 
the depths of my soul. I urged him to pray, but, said 
he, ' It's no use. It is too late now ; I am lost ; but I 
want to tell you what a sinner I have been. I have 
concealed my sins till they have become a consuming 
fire in my heart. I feel some relief in telling what I 
have for years been trying to conceal.' He then 
detailed his crimes, and told how he had deceived his 
parents, resisted the entreaties of his pious aunt, and 
grieved away the Spirit of God. 



268 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" Sinner, those deeds of darkness you conceal with 
so much care, and would not have me spread out 
before this audience for a fortune, and would not 
have your mother know for all the gold of these 
mountains, will so sting your conscience in death 
that you will most gladly seize the small relief of 
open confession. 'Then said they unto Jonah, 
What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be 
calm unto us? For the sea wrought, and was very 
tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, 
and cast me forth into the sea ; so shall the sea be 
calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this 
great tempest is upon you.' 

" But those generous-hearted tars, though they had 
lost their freight on his account, and were exposed to 
such peril, were unwilling to cast the guilty man into 
the sea, but ' rowed hard to bring the ship to the 
land,' but the tempest raged with increasing violence. 
Then they all called on Jonah's God, saying, 'We 
beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not 
perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us inno- 
cent blood.' When they saw there was no alterna- 
tive but to drown the preacher, or all perish together, 
the captain said, '-Mr. Jonah, we are sorry for you, 
but you see our fix.' ' So they took up Jonah, and 
cast him forth into the sea.' The sailors watched 
him with tearful eyes as he struggled amid the raging 
billows, till the cry simultaneously arose from the 



THE MISSIONARY TO NINEVEH. 269 

whole ship's company, ' He's gone ! he's gone ! There 
is an end of that lubber.' But God, who was thus 
educating Jonah for the great work of his mission, 
'had prepared a great fish to swallow him up.' It 
don't matter whether this fish was a whale or a shark; 
as the whole affair was a miraculous interposition of 
Providence, God could easily fit either for his pur- 
pose, or make a new fish for the occasion; at any 
rate, Jonah was swallowed, and the sudden transition 
seemed to realize to him all his forebodings: 'Dead,. 
and in hell at last, just as I expected, and as I 
deserved. In the very belly of hell.' A little reflec- 
tion, however, and a close examination, convinced 
him that he was still in the body, and he was aston- 
ished to find that he was not dead. But he never 
changed the name of his lodgings. It stands in the 
book, ' the belly of hell,' to this day. He could 
imagine nothing worse than that. 'Then Jonah 
prayed unto the Lord his God, out of the fish's 
belly.' An unpropitious place for repentance, one 
would think. 'From the bottoms' of the submarine 
mountains of the Mediterranean Sea, at a depth of 
a thousand fathoms, he prayed, ' O Lord, deliver me 
from this hell, and I'll go to Nineveh. O Lord, be 
pleased to deliver thy servant, and I'll go. O Lord, 
I'll go anywhere, and do anything thou commandest. 
I will serve thee.' 

" Is it not probable that Kehemiah, or whoever it 



270 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

was that composed the one hundred and thirtieth 
Psalm, copied Jonah's prayer ? ' Out of the depths 
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my 
voice: let thine ear be attentive to the voice of my 
supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniqui- 
ties, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgive- 
ness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait 
for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do 
I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than 
they that watch for the morning : I say, more than 
they that watch for the morning.' God hearkened 
to the prayer of Jonah, and, on the third day, com- 
manded the great fish to set his passenger ashore. 
The gladness of Jonah's heart when he jumped 
ashore, who can tell? His experimental song of 
praise to God, which he sung in the ecstasy of his 
redemption, is recorded in the second chapter of the 
book bearing his name. 

" 'And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the 
second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that 
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I 
bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, 
according to the word of the Lord.' By what route 
or conveyance we are not informed ; but he did not 
deviate from his ' orders.' He dared not, even if he 
had been inclined, lest a whale or some other monster 
should seize him. 

" Let every man whom God has called to preach 



THE MISSIONARY TO NINEVEH. 271 

the Gospel feel, ' Woe is me, if I preach not the Gos- 
pel.' Jonah had his diploma, and I do not wonder 
at his success as a preacher. O that God, in his 
mercy, would, by some process, educate a few 
Jonahs, and send them to wake up the careless sin- 
ners of this wicked country." 



272 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEK XLVIII. 

THE DOWNFALL OF THE HAMAN FAMILY. 

On Sunday afternoon, the twenty-second of June, 
1856, at the corner of Sacramento and Liedsdorf 
streets, I announced as my text, to a very large audi- 
ence, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked 
Hainan." 

The day before, Saturday, the twenty-first of June, 
was a day of great excitement in the city. Judge T., 
one of the supreme judges of the State of California, 
stabbed Sterling A. H. The great bell of the Vigi- 
lance Committee struck three times, and in a mo- 
ment the whole city was in commotion. All busi- 
ness was suspended, stores were closed, dray-horses 
were stripped of their gear, leaving the loaded drays 
in the streets, to join the cavalcade. In half an hour 
nearly the whole force of the Vigilance Committee, 
numbering six thousand men, w f ere under arms. 
Long columns of muskets, bayonets, _ and sabers 
gleamed in the sunlight ; but all in solemn silence. 
"No drum, no shouting, naught but the stern com- 
mand of the officers. The only distinguishing badge 



THE DOWNFALL OF THE HAMAN FAMILY. 273 

of this army was a small piece of white ribbon or 
cloth, tied in a button -hole of their coats, or vests, if 
they had no coat on. One fellow, as he ran to get 
his musket, calling to mind the fact that he did not 
have his badge, turned a corner, tore a strip off his 
shirt, tied it into the lapel of his coat, and on he 
went. 

Judge T. had taken refuge in the " Armory of the 
California Blues," the head-quarters of what was 
called "the law and order party." The armory was 
immediately surrounded by detachments of the vigi- 
lant army, who demanded the prisoners and all the 
fire-arms and munitions of war contained in the build- 
ing. The doors were opened by the surrendering 
party, and the " Yigilants" took possession. On the 
bulletin board inside were seen posted notices for a 
grand parade of the law and order forces, to be on 
Sunday, the twenty-second, at ten o'clock A. M., and 
a review of the army by Gen. V. E. H. Judge T. 
and some other prisoners were placed in two close 
carriages, the grand cortege formed around them, and 
marched in solemn procession to " Fort Vigilance," 
on Sacramento-street. The front ranks consisted of a 
large body of infantry, next in order the carriages 
containing the prisoners, next several dray loads of 
muskets and cartridge-boxes, the trophies of war, fol- 
lowed by a large guard of infantry. The cavalry 
brought up the rear. After conveying the prisoners 

18 



274 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

to the " fort," detachments were ordered out to take 
possession of all the armories and arms of the oppos- 
ing party. There were three more besides the one 
they had just taken. The whole was accomplished, 
and about ninety prisoners marched in irons to 
prison, without collision or bloodshed. Most of the 
prisoners were discharged the next morning from 
custody. In a few hours the surface of society was 
calm, business was resumed, and gentlemen, ladies, 
and children were seen promenading the streets in all 
directions, as though nothing had occurred. 

A mass-meeting of about ten thousand citizens, 
held a few days before, endorsed the position and 
operations of the Vigilance Committee ; and it is 
confidently asserted by a majority of the public jour- 
nals of the city, that nine tenths of the inhabitants 
of the city and of the state approve the action of the 
committee, in view of the wrongs this community 
has so long suffered, and feel great security of life and 
property under their administration. I always, so far 
as I know the right, declare my approval of the right, 
and condemnation of the wrong ; but I belong to no 
party, and take no active part on any exciting party 
question, extraneous to the one appropriate cry of 
my calling, " BehoJd the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sin of the world." 

The foregoing is a hasty review of the surroundings 
of the preaching occasion to which I have invited 



THE DOWNFALL OF THE HAMAN FAMILY. 275 

attention. The story of Esther is familiar to all Bible 
readers. I will, therefore, simply note a few points 
in the application of the discourse in question : 
I made Mordecai " the personification of that stern 
religious principle which constitutes the integrity 
and stability of the Church in all ages. He worshiped 
God, and God only ; he recognized the authority of 
the 'higher law,' and never hesitated between the 
alternatives of ' obeying God or man.' And yet he 
sat at the gate, comparatively unknown, poor, and 
despised. Esther was our representative of active 
virtue, implying spiritual understanding, submission to 
the will of God, unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, and 
all the manifest graces and fruits consequent upon the 
exercise of it. She is very nearly related to Mordecai. 
Bigthan and Teresh were representatives of a large 
class of murderers, gamblers, and 'ballot-box stuifers.' 
They aspired to be princes in the city of Slmshan. 
They have constituted the aristocracy of the city of 
San Francisco, moving in courtly pomp and splendor. 
Everybody knew them to be nonproclucing, worthless 
men in society ; but it was not suspected that they 
would put on the livery of the law, subvert the reign 
of justice, clandestinely trample under foot the elective 
franchise, and other sacred rights of American free- 
men. Bigthan & Co. despised Mordecai, would take 
no notice of him, and supposed he took no notice of 
them; but Mordecai is always a loyal subject, and a 



276 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

true friend of good government, and watches with 
ceaseless vigilance the insidious movements of the 
Bigthan fraternity. He thus detected their secret 
plots, and through the influence of Esther, his kins- 
woman, brought them to justice. 

" The avowed object of the Yigilance Committee 
is to clear this city of the whole clan of Bigthans and 
Tereshes. Mordecai has been marking their move- 
ments for years, and has testified against them. 
Esther has a voice in the counsels of the Committee. 
Like an angel of mercy, she hovers over the executive 
in their deliberations. They have received wise 
counsel from her lips. But should they succeed in 
exterminating or banishing all the Bigthans of the 
land, still Haman remains. We have to look out for 
him, for he has great wealth and influence; and 
though he will not now oppose the counsels of Esther, 
he is a most dangerous man. Haman is an infidel ; 
he repudiates the word and authority of God. He 
is a tyrant, he has no regard for the claims of suffer- 
ing humanity. He is an enemy of all righteousness, 
because not consonant with his lascivious passions 
and plans. He is a political demagogue, who would 
sacrifice a whole nation of Mordecais on the altar of 
his ambitious pride, and would pay ' one million one 
hundred and nineteen thousand pounds sterling' for 
the accomplishment of his ambitious and malicious 
purposes. 



THE DOWNFALL OF THE HAMAN FAMILY. 277 

" I heard a man, yesterday, say that he had ex- 
pended ten thousand dollars to be elected sheriff, and 
was disappointed after all. Hainan is the fellow, 
sitting in the counsels of the Vigilance Committee, 
side by side with Esther the queen, that will give us 
trouble yet. He is a most wily politician. Mordecai 
will have to sit at the gate in California for several 
years to come, before we shall be able to dispose of 
this dangerous foe. He seems very kind and pliable 
now ; but, as he acquires influence, he will the more 
despise Mordecai, 'and plot against the just, and 
gnash upon him with his teeth.' But let Mordecai 
maintain his fidelity to God, and do his duty in 
California ; let Esther maintain her purity of heart, 
and her activity in Christian enterprise ; and let all 
the people of Mordecai and Esther fast and pray, and 
God will make the counsel of Hainan like that of 
Ahithophel. He will lift up the head of his servant 
Mordecai. Don't be discouraged, my good fellow; 
' commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, 
and he will bring it to pass. He shall bring forth 
thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as 
the noon day.' And God shall c bring it to pass ' so 
unexpectedly, and so opportunely, that you will 
exclaim with David the king, 'When the wicked, 
even mine enemies, and my foes came upon me to 
eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.' Just as they 
were about to devour me ' they stumbled and fell, 



278 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

and I escaped.' See the displays of God's wise provi- 
dence in c Shushan the palace. 5 

" Haman and his party exulted in his promotion, 
as the sole guest, with King Ahasuerus, at the queen's 
banquet, and regarded that as an unmistakable 
indication of the final success of all his ambitious 
schemes. But there's that stubborn Mordecai at the 
gate ; he cannot longer be tolerated. Mrs. Haman, 
true to the class of Jezebels and Herodiases to which 
she belongs, the very antipodes of Esther, suggested 
the happy expedient. 'Let a gallows be built sev- 
enty-five feet high,' and go early to-morrow morning, 
and obtain from the king a death-warrant for Morde- 
cai, and hang him, (or impale him, rather,) and then 
thou canst enjoy the banquet of the queen. Strange 
as it may seem, the king could not sleep that night, 
and said to his scribe, ' Bring hither the book of rec- 
ords of the chronicles, and read before me.' The 
chronicles of Eastern kings were written by the best 
poets, in measured verse, so that the reading of them 
was very entertaining; much more so, we should 
think, in view of their historic worth, than the novels 
of modern days. Providentially, the scribe read 
4 where it was written that Mordecai had told of 
Bigthan and Teresh,' and was thus the means of 
saving the king's life, and the king said, ' Stop, sir ; 
what honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for 
this V l Then said the king's servants that ministered 



THE DOWNFALL OF THE HAMAN FAMILY. 279 



unto him, There is nothing done for him.' And the 



king said, ' Sentinel, who is in the court ?' ' Behold, 
Hainan standeth in the court,' was the reply. ' Tell 
him to come in,' said the king. So Hainan came in, 
and the king said unto him, 'What shall be done 
unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?' 
4 Now Hainan thought in his heart, To whom would 
the king delight to do honor more than to myself? I 
alone was his guest yesterday.' 'And Haman an- 
swered the king, For the man whom the king de- 
lighteth to honor, let the royal apparel be brought 
which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the 
king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set 
upon his head. And let this apparel and horse be 
delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble 
princes, that they may array the man withal whom 
the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horse- 
back through the street of the city, and proclaim be- 
fore him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom 
the king delighteth to honor.' Then the king said to 
Haman, ' Make haste, and take the apparel and the 
horse, as thou hast said, and do so' — (Yes, thought 
Haman, put it on myself, of course I am the man. 
This head of mine shall bear the crown royal at last) — 
' and do so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the 
king's gate.' 'My lord, O king! live forever, thy 
servant — ' 'Not a word, sir; go,' said the king, 
' and let nothing fail of all thou hast spoken.' 



280 STBEET PREACHING IN SAN FKANCISCO. 

" Did you ever in all your lives see a man so crest- 
fallen ? Judge T. did not feel worse yesterday when 
arrested by the Vigilance Committee. So here comes 
Haman, with the royal apparel and the crown, leading 
the king's horse to the gate. There sits Mordecai," 
pointing to Captain E., who has proved himself a 
worthy representative of Mordecai for six years in 
California, " stern in his integrity, but how greatly as- 
tonished, when his old enemy said, ' Mordecai, stand 
up, sir, and allow me to put upon you these royal 
robes and this crown. Mount the king's horse, sir.' 
And down the street they went, Haman leading the 
king's charger, and with choked and broken utter- 
ances, proclaiming, ' Thus shall it be done unto the 
man whom the king delighteth to honor.' The fate 
of the Haman family is sealed. The redemption of 
Mordecai and his people secured. 

" ' God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform.' 

u Only let Mordecai and Esther do their duty in 
California: let the infant Church of Jesus in this 
wicked land, ' stand in the ways, and see and ask for 
the old paths, where is the good way, and walk 
therein,' 'obeying God rather than man,' though 
now sitting at the gate in rags, and the time will 
come when Mordecai's God will say to her, ' Arise, 
shine, thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is 



THE DOWNFALL OF THE HAMAN FAMILY. 281 

risen upon thee.' She shall then come up out of the 
wilderness, 'fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and 
terrible as an army with banners.' And from all 
these streets, and our beautiful valleys, and from hill- 
top to hill-top, nay, from the coast-range to the snow- 
capped summits of the Sierra Nevada mountains, one 
universal California shout shall arise, ' Halleluiah ! 
The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.' " 



282 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE XLIX. 

LETTERS FROM HOME. 

There are many objects and places of attraction in 
California. Indeed, it is altogether a very attractive 
country, as its population of three hundred thousand, 
attracted from all parts of the world in the space of 
eight years, will clearly prove. There is a charm in 
its climate, its scenery, bays, rivers, valleys, mount- 
ains, and ocean ; its varieties of production, mineral 
and vegetable, and its game, fowl, fish, elk, deer, 
grizzly bears, etc. The great magnet is its rich de- 
posits of virgin gold in banks that never fail, and on 
which every man may draw. Only make a run on 
them, and get them into liquidation, and they will 
pay all the better. But the greatest local attraction, 
of the heterogeneous masses here attracted, is the 
post-office. Thousands of men here, who never were 
absent from their wives and children a week at any 
one time, till they started for California; thousands 
of young men, who scarcely were ever out of sight 
of the smoke of their mothers' chimneys till they 
bade good-by to "the old folks at home," to try 



LETTERS FROM HOME. 283 

their fortunes in the land of gold ; hundreds of young 
lovers, bound by sleepless affection and plighted 
faith to virgins beautiful and lovely, to whom they 
would certainly return in two years, which was all 
the time any decent man could ask to make a fortune 
in California. Six months would probably realize all 
their hopes, but to be certain of no disappointment 
to the fair ones, the time was set for two years. How 
desolate the hearts of these different classes of men, 
in the absence of all those objects of home attraction 
and affection, in this vast social Sahara. The only 
substitutes for them were the little drops and glimpses 
of social life and light obtained through the post- 
office. A view of the office at San Francisco, with 
which I have been familiar for more than seven 
years, will describe, in the main, all the post-offices 
of this coast. At first they had "two windows of 
delivery." One was for the "navy and army, the 
French, Spanish, Chinese, clergy, and the ladies." 
All the rest of mankind in California were waited on 
at the other window, provided they had time and 
patience to take their turn, and work their passage 
to it. Every man had to wait his turn, as the coun- 
try mill boys used to do. The line of anxious faces, 
single file, was, on the arrival of every mail, from 
one to three hundred yards long. To travel from the 
rear end to the long-desired " window" was a work 
of from one to five hours. This long line hardly 



284 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

ever began to shorten for half a day after it was 
formed. Its slow travelers, never in such a hurry 
before, making from one to two steps in their jour- 
ney every minute, were entertained and fed, or bored 
by the newsboys, fruit boys, pop corn boys, and 
candy boys. The boys, who have so hard work to 
keep up with our fast men, or get a hearing in the 
streets, seem always to feel that they have a rare 
advantage over the men of the line, and improve it 
to the best of their skill. The slow travelers are 
weary, hungry, have calls of pressing importance, 
and their time more valuable than gold, but they 
must not break rank, or they will lose their turn, 
and have to begin again. Men sometimes bought a 
chance near the window for five dollars, and got 
their letters without much delay, while the specula- 
tors in chances went back and commenced anew. 
To look at the anxious countenances of men at the 
windows was painfully interesting. One man gets 
a letter, and immediately breaks it open, expecting 
" news from home," but, lo ! it is a letter of introduc- 
tion from some man he never saw, who has " taken 
the liberty of referring a particular friend" to him 
for information, and the " particular friend not meet- 
ing with him so soon as he expected, dropped the 
letter into the post-office." He tears up his only 
letter, and hopes never to be introduced to that 
" particular friend." Another is waiting in great 



LETTERS FROM HOME. 285 

suspense, but the postmaster says : " Nothing for 
you, sir." 

" Please, sir, look again," says the expectant. 

" Nothing for you, sir." 

Turning away, he says : " I came round Cape Horn, 
and they were to commence writing after I had been 
out a month, and now it is eight months, and I 
haven't got a letter." 

The next one gets a letter, and breaking it open, as 
he turns away, you see him trembling till black with 
agonized emotion. You at once know that some 
dread bolt from that letter, but little less powerful 
than a thunder-bolt, has struck him. You see no 
tears, for they seem to be frozen up in their fountains. 
The only utterance you hear from his lips, broken 
and involuntary, as he retires from the crowd, is : " O, 
my God, she is dead !" 

The next man awaits his portion with trembling. 
He gets a letter, pays forty cents postage on it, and 
breaks it to get the news from home. " Pshaw !" 
says he, " I think a fellow writing to know whether 
he had better come to California, might pay the post- 
age on his letter. I shall write him to stay at home." 

Another standing at the window says : "I have not 
received a letter for six months, and I expect it will 
be just so this time." 

"Perhaps," said I, " you do not write to your 
friends?" 



286 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" Yes, I do," said he, " but I can get no answer." 

" Nothing for you," says the post clerk to him, and 
he turns away with a sigh. 

A man takes out a letter, and reads, and presses it 
to his lips, and reads on, and kisses it again and 
again. His tears break through a "windrow" of 
smiles on his face. It is from his dear wife ; and John, 
and Mary, and Lizzie have all added a postscript. 

"In the course of human events," the post-office 
was moved down to the " Portsmouth House," on the 
west side of the Plaza. There, w r ith a great increase 
of room, the windows were multiplied. The navy 
and army had a place to themselves. The French, 
Spanish, and Chinese had their window, while the 
ladies and clergy still kept company to the same 
window. The great undistinguished masses were 
divided into classes by the letters of the alphabet. 

All whose names commenced with a letter 
included between A and D fell into the A and 
D line. Another class for the window of E and 
H ; and so on through the alphabet. This was 
quite an improvement on the old system. By and 
by we had " boxes," in which the letters could 
be seen from the outside. "Box rent" was quite 
an "item," but that was nothing to a man anx- 
ious to get " letters from home." Then, again, we 
had boxes with doors opening on the outside, and the 
renter of the box carried the key, so that he could 



LETTEKS FROM HOME. 287 

open it whenever lie pleased. Still a great many 
have to take turn in the line, and all the improve- 
ments in the office could not supply the disappointed 
with any equivalent for the expected " letters from 
home" they did not receive, nor extract the death- 
shocks from those which bore the " black seal." An 
anxious man, who had taken his turn in the line, ex 
pecting a letter from his wife, received a letter, but 
O misery ! it was from a crazy woman, who had fallen 
in love with some man, and had written to this ex- 
pectant friend to send her dear Mr. to her, or 

she " certainly would die and be lost forever." A 
poor lover, who has had " bad luck," and has not been 
able to return at the time appointed, is waiting at 
the "window" in great suspense. He hopes to get a 
letter from his dear S., telling him that she loves him 
still, and will wait till he can " make a raise," or 
have him without the " raise." He receives a letter 
from a friend, informing him, that, " Alas ! alas ! his 
S. is married !" Poor fellow, he feels that what little 
is left of himself is hardly worth saving, and hence 
throws himself away. 

A true-hearted girl did write to her lover to the 
last, and when her lover's trunks were sold at public 
auction to pay his funeral expenses, these letters, too 
sacred for such an exposure, nevertheless bore testi- 
mony to her unwavering affection. " They were 
letters from home," and they soothed a dying man. 



288 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Again to the window. Another poor fellow, as he 
turns away in deep disappointment, says : " I have 
not received a letter from my family for two years. 
Thinking it might be the fault of the Mountain Ex- 
press men, I have come down here, three hundred 
miles, and have spent one hundred and fifty dollars to 
try to get one letter from home, and I can't get it. 
I'll just quit writing ! It's no use !" 

The next man gets a letter; breaks it, reads 
and laughs. Reads and laughs again, seemingly 
unconscious that anybody sees him ; except, indeed, 
he imagines himself really in the presence of those 
with whom his soul is evidently conversing. 

Nathan Withers, a seaman, who had not received 
a letter from his family in Scotland for seven years, 
wrote them to address their letters to my care. In 
due time, the long silence was broken, the letter 
came; and the old tar, unused to weeping, wept for 
gladness, as he read, from the hand of his wife, about 
his children that had grown up in his absence. 
They had received his letters, and money for their 
support regularly, and had written him ; but, in his 
frequent changes, he had not received a letter for 
seven years. The post-office has usually been closed 
on the Sabbath in San Francisco, from the first, ex- 
cept when the mails arrive on Saturday night, too late 
for distribution. On one of these occasions, the 
"general delivery" was opened at the hour I was by 






LETTERS FROM HOME. 



289 



appointment to preach on the Plaza, in the immediate 
vicinity where the lines formed and passed. As I 
was about to commence the announcement of my 
" news from a far country," a man came up in a 
hurry, and said to me, " Is this the line to the A and 
D window ?" " I don't know, sir," replied I. "I am 
about forming a line, sir, to travel to the kingdom of 
heaven. I shall be very glad to have you fall into 
our line, sir, and go with us." " I don't wish to go 
there yet, sir," said he; "I want my letters from, 
home." 

19 



290 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTER L. 

PATRIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 

At the corner of Sacramento and Lieclsdorf streets, 
on Sunday, the thirteenth of July, 1856, 1 announced 
as my text, " Almost thou persuadest me to be a 
Christian." The audience was large and orderly. I 
gave a very brief history of St. Paul's imprisonment 
and trials : " Arrested by a Jewish mob in the temple ; 
rescued by Colonel Lysias, with a troop of Eoman 
soldiers from the Castle of Antonia ; arraigned before 
the Sanhedrim, where they would have given him 
'law and order' to the death, but for the timely 
interposition of Colonel Lysias, who afterward sent him 
under an escort of four hundred and seventy soldiers, 
infantry and cavalry, to Csesarea, the seat of Roman 
authority in Palestine, to be tried before Judge Felix. 
The prosecution was conducted by the Hon. Tertul- 
lus. St. Paul,, who had been educated at the feet of 
Gamaliel, a doctor of laws, and afterward graduated 
in the school of Christ, was lawyer enough to plead 
his own defense ; and he did it in a masterly man- 
ner, refuting most conclusively the threefold charge 



PATRIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 291 

of sedition, profanation of the Temple, and heresy. 
And if his honor, Judge Felix, had been an honest 
judge, he would have discharged the prisoner at 
once, by an honorable acquittal; but for reasons, 
which even that long-cued Chinaman could detect, 
he kept him in prison two years, and then delivered 
him over to his successor in office, Judge Festus. 
First, he wanted to please the Jews, by whom his 
vanity was flattered ; and, secondly, he wanted St. 
Paul to pay him money. A Chinaman, up country, 
when a fellow-Chinaman was arrested for a murder, 
was asked what he thought would be the fate of the 
prisoner. ' O !' said he, 'he get free; he no hang. 
He just same as one Melican (American) man. He 
got money.'' If St. Paul had been the same as 'one 
Melican man,' he could have been liberated im- 
mediately ; for the judge, like some Californian 
judges I have heard of, had his price, and was in the 
market waiting for a bid. But St. Paul, a poor, de- 
spised missionary of the cross of Jesus, had no money; 
for all the extra change he had received on his circuit 
the year preceding, he had just given away to the 
' poor saints at Jerusalem.' But if his friends had 
furnished the money, Paul disdained to pay a pre- 
mium on the cupidity and corruption of the judge, 
or accept of liberty on such conditions. From Judge 
Festus he received the same kind of treatment ; and 
after he had taken an appeal to the Supreme Court 



292 STEEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

at Rome, Festus said to his guest, King Agrippa, and 
the audience assembled to hear Paul: 'I have determ- 
ined to send the prisoner to Rome ; of whom I have 
no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I 
have brought him before you, and especially before 
thee, O King Agrippa ! that after examination had, 
I might have somewhat to write. -For it seemeth to 
me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to 
signify the crimes laid against him.' So it would 
seem, Judge Festus, to any man who had one grain 
of common sense, especially after the man had been in 
prison for more than two years ; and I wonder you did 
not think of that when his case was tried before you. 

" St. Paul, in chains, preached to the assembled 
audience, and especially to the illustrious quaternion, 
King Agrippa, and his vile sister Bernice, and her 
sister, Mrs. Festus, and the honorable judge himself. 
Paul's arguments were unanswerable, and such was 
the persuasive power of his eloquence that King 
Agrippa interrupted, the preacher by crying out, 
'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' 
Agrippa was not almost a Christian, but almost 
persuaded to be a Christian. 

" In the further discussion of the subject, I will 
consider : 

"I. What is a Christian? 

" II. What are the persuasives to influence the 
will to accept of Christ, to become a Christian % 



PATRIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN. £CC 

" To suit our present purpose, we will present the 
persuasives under two heads : 1. Patriotic Persua- 
sives. 2. Persuasives purely Spiritual, such as were 
employed directly by St. Paul. 

" We will here note a few points and illustrations, 
under the head of Patriotic Persuasives, as presented 
on Sacramento-street. 

- " You all profess to be patriots, do you not? Yea, 
most of you profess to be reformers. Your connection 
with the Yigilance Committee is for the avowed pur- 
pose of reformation. Whatever, therefore, will most 
directly effect the desired end, should be matter of 
great interest to you. The strength, prosperity, and 
permanence of a nation do not consist in her navies 
and armies, nor her walled cities and fortifications, 
nor her colleges, academies, and public schools. 
These are all necessary appliances of protection and 
development, and evidences of a nation's strength, 
but not the hasis, nor source, nor primary conditions. 
'Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a re- 
proach to any people.' What is the cause of all the 
evils so much complained of in this city ? What is 
this rum-selling, and drunken debauchery, and gam- 
bling, and theft, and bloodshed, and corruption in office, 
and ballot-box stuffing, but the development of sin in 
the hearts, and its corresponding manifestation in the 
lives of those various characters? All our degrada- 
tion and imbecility, individually and collectively, 



294 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

proceed from the same source. It is the opposite of 
all this, righteousness, experimental godliness alone, 
that will purify and exalt society. This is the great 
conservative bond that constitutes the strength and 
integrity of any nation. The connection between the 
cause and efTect, maintained by this proposition, is 
not seen by superficial observers, but you have an 
illustration of it in the declaration of God in regard 
to Sodom: 'I will spare the city for ten's sake.' 
This is the salt that preserves society from utter moral 
putrefaction. The health of a people consists of the 
health of the individual members composing society. 
If, therefore, we sincerely desire to see a reformation 
in this city, and to see society elevated and estab- 
lished on a permanent moral basis, we must earnestly 
apply ourselves to the work of personal reformation 

" Now, how far do the avowed purposes of the 
Yigilance Committee go to efTect this? I believe 
that all they propose to do, besides the moral efTect 
of an expression of the popular voice against certain 
sins, which, to be sure, is very important, is ' to clean 
the Augean stable.' I am not very familiar with 
that stable, but it doubtless needs cleaning, and we 
wish them good success in the dirty job they have 
undertaken, and that all the moral nuisances of the 
city will be cleared out. But how far will that go, 
however necessary, as a preparative toward purifying 
and elevating society? That is but removing the 



PATKIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 295 



6 rubbish.' Nehemiah's men had to clear away 'the 
rubbish ;' but had they stopped there, the walls never 
would have gone up. As the rubbish is cleared, we 
must lay the foundations of the temple of truth on 
these shores, deep and broad, and then go up with 
the walls, and, trusting in God, 'the mountain' that 
now obstructs ' will become a plain,' and the temple, 
built up of ' living stones,' shall be completed, and our 
Divine 'Zerubbabel shall bring forth the head-stone 
thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it,' 
But how are we to proceed in this work ? "We have 
a good model in the great reformation of ancient 
Nineveh, under the preaching of Jonah : ' The people 
of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and 
put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to 
the least of them.' What a worthy example the old 
king set for his people ! The influence of high 
officers of state is immense, for good or for evil. 
'The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest 
men are exalted.' How true to the experience of 
California ! The king proclaimed a fast, not as some 
hypocritical governors we have heard of, who, after 
proclaiming a solemn fast for the people, spend the 
day in debauchery. ' The king arose from his throne,, 
and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with 
sackcloth, and sat in ashes.' The people imitated 
his example, and they all ' cried mightily unto 
God, and turned every one from his evil %oay? That 



296 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

is the kind of reformation we want here in San 
Francisco. 

" Now, you who have families here, when you go 
home to-night say to your companion, ' My dear wife, 
God has intrusted us with these infant germs of im- 
mortality, and their weal or woe, for time and eter- 
nity, depends mainly upon the training we give them. 
We have not done our duty toward the souls of our 
children, our own souls, nor the souls of our neigh- 
bors. Now let us read a lesson in the Bible to-night, 
and try to pray with our children.' ' O, but,' says 
one, ' I don't feel like it, and it would be mockery to 
attempt it.' Make an honest effort upon the decis- 
ions of your judgment, with or without feeling; the 
feeling will come in due time. 

" Old Brother Gott, a good man, who has stood the 
fire in California like a Shadrach, said : ' When I was 
married and brought my young wife home, she, im- 
mediately after supper, set out the family Bible, and 
requested me to read a lesson and pray. I had never 
prayed in my life, and I was in a terrible strait. I 
knew not what to do. I thought it would not do to 
say no to my new wife, so I read, and kneeled down, 
and tried to pray. I stammered and choked, and 
made a miserable fist of it ; but when she found that 
I had fairly stalled, she took hold and helped me out. 
I found that she could pray very well. The next 
morning I tried it again. Three weeks from that 



PATRIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 297 

time I experienced the pardon of my sins, and a new 
heart, and the duty that was before so irksome, now 
became a delight. The family altar we set up that 
trying evening was kept up without intermission for 
thirty years.' Go thou, my friend, and do like- 
wise. 

" And you ' ranchers,' (equivalent to members of a 
bachelor's hall,) who have no families, speak to your 
companions before you go to bed to-night about this 
matter. Say to them, ' Boys, we go in for reform. 
We belong to the Vigilance. ISTow let us commence 
to-night and have prayers in the " ranch," and try and 
reform ourselves.' Don't make a mockery of it, as did 
a simple-hearted old German, who, having a number 
of strange guests at his table, said to the one next to 
him, 'Friend, say grace.' The friend requested the 
one next to him to say it, and so it passed round till 
it came back to the old German, and he said : ' Yell, 
ve can do mitout dis time.' You make the proposi- 
tion, and then lead the way yourself. The Lord help 
you. Your eternal happiness or woe may hang upon 
your action to-night. Will you do it ? ' O, but,' 
says one, ' the boys will laugh at me, and perhaps 
kick me out of the " ranch." ' Men, if rightly ap- 
proached, are much more considerate and respectful 
than they get credit for. You cannot know how they 
will receive such a proposition till you try them. I 
have no doubt that they will at least behave as 



298 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

well as a lot of gamblers with whom I once had 
prayers. 

" Hungry, wet, cold, and belated, one stormy night, 
on a trip across the mountains from Santa Cruz to 
San Jose Yalley, in the winter of 1849, I put up, at 
a late hour, at an 'old adobe,' which they called a 
hotel, in Santa Clara. I was conducted into the bar- 
room, where a jolly set of gamblers were at their 
cards. After I had taken supper and seated myself 
by the fire, they got through with their games and 
profane jokes, and took seats round the fire to look 
at and listen to the unknown stranger. I gave them 
an account of things in San Francisco, and especially 
of the condition of the sick in the City Hospital, 
which, as some of you remember, was but little more 
than a charnel-house in those days. Most of those 
who went there were carried out feet foremost. 
[' True, true,' said different ones in the audience.] 
Well, when the proposition was made to retire to 
bed, I remarked, 'Gentlemen, if there are no objec- 
tions, we will unite in prayer together before we re- 
tire. Let us get down, as some of us used to do 
when we were little boys with the old folks at home.' 
They stared at me for a moment in astonishment. 
The bar-keeper, who was standing behind the bar 
waiting for a chance to sell to each one another ' nip' 
at two bits apiece, said : ' I suppose there are no ob- 
jections.' So down they got, the last gambler of 



PATRIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 299 

them, as humble as children, and we had a very 
gracious season of prayer. 

"They then slipped off to bed, as mute as mice. 
Did they feel like laughing or kicking me out ? No, 
sirs. I met one of them the next day in the town of 
San Jos£, and lie took off his hat before he got within 
a rod of me. Men will respect you for doing your 
duty, and whether they respect you or not, do your 
duty. Go home to-night, and try it, and leave the 
result with God. And you all, each one of you, no 
matter where you live, or what your relation in life, 
* Go into your closet,' or some secret place, to-night, 
and pray to God, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 
pardon of your sins. O, how they have multiplied 
since you came to California. Would you not like 
to feel, my friend, that every sin you have ever com- 
mitted since you were like this little boy, (pointing to 
a little fellow,) is freely forgiven for the sake of Jesus 
Christ? Then ask, that you may receive; humble 
yourself before God, as did the Ninevites ; renounce 
all your sins, outward sins and inward sins, sins of the 
life and sins of the heart; get an eternal divorce 
from them all. Will you do it? Will you? 'I 
have not feeling enough to begin,' says one. Poor 
fellow, I am sorry for you ; your day of grace is 
almost gone. But try to pray, pray now, pray ever. 
Pray with the importunity with which M'Donald, 
the editor of the Sierra Citizen, said he would pray 



300 STREET PREACHING- IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

under certain circumstances. Speaking of certain 
notoriously corrupt officials, said he, ' If I had taken 
an oath to support those men, I would hasten away 
to the highest summit of the Sierra Nevada mount- 
ains, where I would be nearest to the ear of the 
Almighty, and I would there kneel down, and pray 
to him to forgive the hell-engendered oath, and if he 
would not do it, I would remain on my knees till the 
winds should whistle through my fleshless carcass.' 
That is the determination we want you to have, only 
in the spirit of Jacob, the wrestler, rather than 
M'Donald, the editor. But you need not go to the 
summit of the Sierra Nevada. Jesus Christ is here 
in the street to-day. He is bending in sympathy 
over your guilty, blood-bought spirits, now. O, 
speak to him! Reach out the hand of faith and 
touch the hem of his garment. 

" In conclusion, we would give you the advice that 
a fellow-student of mine from my native place, Eock- 
bridge County, Virginia, gave on one occasion. Said 
he, at the close of a sermon, i My unconverted neigh- 
bors, I want each of you to pray twice a day in secret, 
for two weeks, the time of my next appointment here, 
and then come and tell me the result.' When he 
returned, a man by the name of Steel, whom we 
knew well, ran and met him, and told him that he 
had taken his advice, and though he had no feeling, 
and could not pray when he first tried, he kept at it, 



PATRIOTIC PERSUASIVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 301 

and became so distressed on account of his sins, that 
he could not do anything else than pray, and that 
God, for Christ's sake, had pardoned all his sins, 
and made him happy.' 

" Go, each one of you, and try sincerely for your- 
self. Were I to tell you how to make a thousand 
dollars, you would jump at the opportunity. Relig- 
ion will be worth more to you than all the gold of 
California, and to obtain and exemplify it is the 
only way you can promote a genuine reform in 
society. "Would to God that all that hear me this 
day, were not only almost, (as you are,) but alto- 
gether such as the Apostle Paul." 



302 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE LI. 

A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 

The following expose of California devils was made 
on the corner of Sacramento and ' Li edsdorf streets, in 
two discourses. The first on Sunday afternoon, the 
tenth of August, 1856, the second, on the Sunday after- 
noon following. The congregation in each instance 
numbered about one thousand hearers. On the 
second occasion I was honored with the presence of 
our good Bishop Scott. The text was selected from 
Mark v, 6-9 : " But when he saw Jesus afar off, he 
ran and worshiped him, and cried with a loud voice, 
and said, "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou 
Son of the most high God ? I adj are thee, by God, 
that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, 
Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he 
asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, 
saying, My name is Legion ; for we are many." 

"What a variety of devils were contained in the 
legion which possessed the demoniac of Gadara. 
Every unrenewed heart is the receptacle of ' unclean 
spirits,' to which they have ingress and egress at 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFOKNIA DEVILS. 303 

pleasure. The difference between the Gadarean 
demoniac and these California sinners, is that he had 
more of them at one time than these generally have, 
although much of the hmacy of the present day is 
doubtless produced by the same cause. We believe 
that, with the ripening experience of succeeding cen- 
turies, the old ' prince of the power of the air' has 
effected a more perfect organization of his diabolic 
forces now than he had eighteen hundred years ago, 
and, therefore, instead of sending a legion indiscrimi- 
nately into one poor mortal, he has a great variety 
of ' bureaus,' or ' departments of state,' with devils 
specially trained to fill their appropriate offices with 
honor to his Satanic majesty's government. Some 
of these grand ' departments,' under the dynasty of 
darkness, are the following : 

" I. The department of Covetousness. 

" II. Of Worldly Position and Eenown. 

"ILL Of Politics. 

"IY. Of Matrimony. 

" Y. Of Connubial Infidelity. 

«YI. Of Libertinism. 

" VII. Department of Slander. 

"VHI The Children's Department. 

"And many others, too numerous to mention. 
We will briefly illustrate the operations of Satan's 
high officers of state, filling the different depart- 
ments above enumerated. 



304 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

"The chief of the Department of Covetousness 
has a splendid ' bazar,' more magnificent than the 
c Crystal Palace,' in which is the most gorgeous dis- 
play of the wealth and splendor of the world. The 
entrance to this grand palace is free, the doors are 
always open, and a world of old men, and maidens, 
and little children crowd in, to see and contemplate 
the glory of riches. They are charged nothing for 
the sight, but every possible inducement is held out 
to all to buy a chance in the great lottery wheel of 
fortune. The walls of this great mart are hung with 
beautiful paintings, and on every pillar various mot- 
toes are presented in large letters, emblazoned in 
gold ; such as, ' Wealth, the key which unlocks 
every avenue of pleasure.' ' To be rich is to be hon- 
ored.' "Tis money makes the mare go.' 'Money 
is the lever that moves, at once, both Church and 
State.' In one place is seen a large likeness of an old 
man delivering a charge to his departing son, as he 
embarks on the voyage of business life, with this sen- 
tence dropping from his lips, ' My son, make money, 
honestly if you can, but make money? In the mean- 
time, the mammon devil is proposing, and making 
all kinds of bargains with all classes of society in the 
sale of tickets for the 'great wheel.' Some awful 
trades are there made. Old men bartering away 
their honor, and all their hopes of heaven, for one 
' chance,' just as their sun of life is setting. Honest 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 305 

young men consenting to be rogues, and multitudes 
agreeing to tell ' white lies,' and pledging their lives 
to overreaching and extortion. 

" I saw there a temperance man who had been 
so strict, up to the age of forty years, that he would 
not allow his wagon to stop in front of a grog-shop. 
When he came to California, he made a bargain in 
this mart, the precise terms of which we can only 
judge of by his subsequent conduct. He opened a 
restaurant on Clay-street, near Dupont-street, and be- 
came a 'gentleman of the bar! 1 How many poor 
drunkards he manufactured, eternity only can reveal. 
He was at the business more than two years, and 
'drew a blank' every time; and returning to his fam- 
ily, a poor, disappointed dupe, he died on the pas- 
sage. His body went down into the deep blue sea, 
and his poor soul, who can fathom the depths of its 
dreary, downward flight ? 

" A man who had been a minister in the East, 
seemed to have made a sort of conditional bargain, 
for he opened a store in the southern mines on tem- 
perance principles, and would sell nothing on the 
Sabbath. But after a while he left his hack door ajar, 
so that particular friends from a distance, who could 
not readily come during the week, might be accom- 
modated with a pair of boots or a week's provisions. 
This paid so well, that a few subordinate devils, from 
the ' grand lottery wheel,' easily prevailed on him to 

20 



306 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

leave his front door ajar. They argued that as far as 
the wrong in the case was concerned, it was in prin- 
ciple no worse than to keep the back door ajar, and 
that he could close, or conceal his design when he 
should see any squeamish Sabbath observers about. 
That paid still better. Every turn of the ' great 
wheel' brought him a prize. He was really 'in 
luck.' He was soon after waited on by another 
diabolical committee from head quarters, who said to 
him in effect: 'Now if you will throw open your 
doors, you will very soon make your " pile." You 
have given up the principle already, and it is mean 
to be hypocritical about it. A man ought to be 
consistent, and if the old fogies, preachers, and 
croakers come about you, just say : " O, this is Cali- 
fornia." ' So open went the doors. The next propo- 
sition was to introduce a bar into the store. He 
really did not like to do that, but his alliance and 
traffic with this high department of state were so 
profitable, that he feared to say no, and for the sake 
of additional prizes, secretly desired to say yes. So 
in went the bar, with the specific understanding, how- 
ever, that should he be enriched within a few months, 
he would close up the whole concern, go home, put 
on his religious cloak, and do good with his money. 
The principle underlying this last transaction was, 
k The end justifies the means.' His prizes became 
so numerous and rich, that he had to employ 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 307 

thirty yoke of oxen, all his own, to haul goods for his 
store, and had, besides, several hundred milk cows, 
and already saw, in the prospective, ' the cattle on a 
thousand hills,' all bearing his brand. But suddenly 
the wheel was reversed. His store was burned. The 
Indians ' stampeded' and destroyed his cattle, and in 
the space of a few short months, he found himself 
stripped almost as bare as the servants of David, 
whom Hanun, the Ammonite, shaved and clipped, 
and he had almost literally to beg his way to ' Jeri- 
cho,' (Stockton, California,) to await the growth of 
his beard. He there went to hard work in a legitimate 
way, and sincerely repented of his sins before the 
Lord. We heard him relate, substantially, the facts 
above given. 

"But the most heart-sickening sight in this grand 
palace of Prince Diabolns, the scene over which the 
angels weep, is to see Columbia's fair daughters, with 
hearts beating with gleeful emotion and joyous hope, 
cheeks covered with innocent blushes, as they for the 
first time meet the gaze of the crowded ' bazar.' Now 
they look at the pictures, and now at the mottoes, and 
now watch the evolutions of the great wheel, and seethe 
brilliant prizes and the happy winners, as they bear 
them away. These lovely girls, unacquainted with 
the dangers surrounding them, and having, it may be, 
no faithful counselors, are enchanted. And now, 
certain things, claiming to be men, with all the 



308 STREET , PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

beauty of young David, and apparent purity of 
Joseph, ingratiate themselves into the affections of 
these unsuspecting maids, and propose to conduct 
them to the lord of the great wheel, where they can, 
on easy terms, obtain a ticket and draw a prize. 
The details of the trade, and its dreadful results to the 
young ladies (eternally marked and blighted through 
all time) and to their fond parents and friends, we 
need not relate. Covetousness, and not amativeness, 
is the rock on which most of such have been wreck- 
ed, the opinion of the world to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

" The palace of Mammon, to which we have intro- 
duced you, is the most extensive of any of the de- 
partments of state under Prince Diabolus. 

" The department of worldly position and renown 
is next adjoining, with which there is a free commu- 
nication by an open door. 

" The prince of political devils is a very important 
personage in California. No college in the universe 
can bestow as many degrees and titles as he, and he 
pledges his honor to the world that he will * dub ' no 
man with a title, and will nominate no man for office, 
who has not proved himself a true man, who would 
almost lay down his life to subserve the interests of 
the dear people, if they will vote him into office, and 
accept of him as their most humble servant. The 
walls of his grand forum are hung with landscape 






A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 309 

and rural paintings, representing the highest state of 
national prosperity ; and also a great variety of mot- 
toes, in large letters of gold, such as ' Vox jpopuli, 
vox Deif etc. In the rear of the forum is a ' bar,' 
where the very best liquors in the world, of every 
variety, are displayed, and offered free as air. A free 
lunch given into the bargain. In a back room ad- 
joining, all primary elections are held. Some of the 
tallest feats old Lucifer ever accomplished are enacted 
in this very back room. In an open hall, contiguous to 
this room, is a trap-door, through which men had been 
seen to descend in the dusk of the evening, but it was 
never known, by the dear people, for what purpose, 
until the intermeddling police of the V. C. penetrated 
the dark vault beneath, and ascertained that that 
was the place where ' patent ballot-boxes ' were man- 
ufactured and 'stuffed.' By every election day, the 
old diabolical political demagogue has all his matters 
arranged to his mind, taking special care to have 
'good judges of election,' and to have the votes 
of the free people cast in or contiguous to a grog-shop, 
the statute of the state to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. In every precinct he stations a host of invisible 
devils, and enough of visible Billy Mulligans and 
Yankee Sullivans, to conduct with consummate 
adroitness the preconcerted plans of his political 
highness. 

"As true Californians we must acknowledge our 



310 STEEET PKEACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

obligation to him for most of the illustrious line of 
officers who have held official position in our new state. 
We do not pretend to insinuate that we have not had, 
and have not now, many honest and excellent men 
in office. Such an insinuation would reflect on the 
wisdom of our political devil. He always wants a 
small minority of the best of men to grace his adminis- 
tration. The Yankee Sullivan fraternity have well- 
nigh defeated him in this regard, and have brought 
his management of affairs into such disrepute that he 
is by no means sorry that the Yigilance Committee 
have taken them in hand. They had been so true 
to his interest in general, that he did not like to dismiss 
them ; moreover, he feared that they might resent it 
by an exposure of his secret counsels. I think his 
Satanic majesty is about ready for a transformation, 
and the introduction of a different form of adminis- 
tration in California, utterly repudiating the old, and 
denying that he ever had an identity with it. When 
inquiry is made for him under his old cognomen, he 
will be like the old colored ( Gumbo, of Virginia.' It 
is said of him, when the cholera first visited that part 
of the country, it raged principally among the whites, 
and Gumbo said : ' De angel ob de Lord take care of 
de colored people.' By and by it broke out among 
the colored people, and some wicked fellows went one 
night to Gumbo's cabin, and seeing him sitting alone 
by his lamp, they knocked at his door. 'Who dar?' 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 311 

said Gumbo. ' De angel ob de Lord,' said one of 
them. ' What yon arter V ' Come . arter Gumbo,' 
said one. 'Pooh!' blowing out his lamp, c no such 
nigga here,' replied Gumbo; * he's been dead dis tree 
weeks.' 

" Do not imagine, my friends, that we would un- 
derrate or trifle with the elective franchise of a free 
people; but we would have the American people 
dissolve all alliance with demagogues and devils. 
We would have them acknowledge and fulfill their 
obligations to God, the author of all our blessings, for 
the rich inheritance he has given us in 

' The laud of the free and the home of the brave ;' 

and for the glorious institutions secured to us by 
his providence, through the struggles and blood of 
our fathers. We would have them substitute an en- 
lightened democracy for a licentious rum-ocracy. 
We would have them shut up every synagogue of 
Satan, and everywhere repair the altars of God, 
which have been thrown down, as did Elijah in the 
days of Ahab and his miserable old wife Jezebel. 

" We want to see an altar of prayer in the habita- 
tion of every American family, and to see all, from 
the gray-headed granddaddy down to the little rosy 
cheeks on which the blush of guilty shame never sat, 
bow down together, at every rising and setting of the 
sun, in the sincere worship of the true God. We 



312 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

would not then be troubled with < Yigilance Commit- 
tees,' nor the necessity for them. We would then 
realize and exhibit the fact that ' Righteousness ex- 
alteth a nation,' as we now realize to our shame, that 
'sin is a reproach to any people.' O, then, we 
would immediately hail the welcome rising of mil- 
lennial glory. 

" In regard to the matrimonial devil, we will only 
stop to say that he has made very many hasty, ill- 
advised matches in California, which have resulted 
in a great deal of domestic strife and scandal, and 
furnished employment for lawyers in the prosecution 
of divorce suits. One night, in the winter of 1849, 
two parties came to my house to be united in mar- 
riage. I questioned them closely, and everything 
seemed to be right. After uniting one pair of them, 
as I requested the second party to present them- 
selves, the groom arose, but the lady kept her seat. 
Said she, \ I have concluded not to get married to- 
night.' So they all left, About an hour later the 
same lady returned with another man, accompanied 
by several witnesses, and asked to be united in mar- 
riage, 1 objected, and told them they were too 
hasty, and that a matter of so grave importance 
should be well considered. But they declared that 
they had known each other a year, and had been en- 
gaged for a ' long time,' and that the lady's coming 
with the other fellow to get married was a coquettish 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFOKNIA DEVILS. 313 

freak, and that the man before me, the true lover, 
having met them on their way home, and threatened 
the other fellow with a ' good licking,' they had come 
at once without further needless delay to enter to- 
gether into the holy bonds of matrimony. Their 
witnesses testified to the material facts in the case, 
and they were married. 

" I united a couple in 1853, and they were a very 
interesting looking party, and before three days had 
elapsed they came back to see if I could not untie 
' the knot.' At another time I married a couple that 
seemed to be above suspicion, and a more beautiful 
pair I seldom ever witnessed. The man took his 
bride home, and there he met with a fellow, who, 
professing to have superior claims to the lady, gave 
the bridegroom a terrible beating, and took charge 
of the bride. 

"Again, when called to a wedding, I suspected, 
from some whispering in an adjoining room, that all 
was not right with the lady candidate for matrimony. 
So I said to her, ' Have you ever been married, 
madam?' 'Yes, sir,' was the reply. 'Is your hus- 
band dead V ' No, sir,' said she. ' What has become 
of him ?' ' He is in the city, sir.' ' Have you been 
legally divorced?' 'Yes, sir,' said she. 'I must 
have good evidence of that fact before I can pro- 
ceed,' said I. The evidence was produced, and they 
were married. A few months afterward the same 



314 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

woman, and she is a woman of wealth, came to our 
Bethel parsonage with a certain doctor in your city, 
to have me unite her in marriage with the doctor. 
1 What,' said I, ' have you done with Mr. H., your last 
husband V Said she, ' He tried to get hold of my 
money, and I drove him away, and he has gone to 
the State of Iowa, and I have come to get married to 
the doctor here.' 'Indeed! Well, madam, I can't 
marry you ; I think now, I have married you once 
too often already, and that is enough for me.' She 
importuned, but I would not marry them, so they 
went off, and I presume, from seeing them often 
promenade the streets together, that they were mar- 
ried by somebody else. 

" These are a few specimens of the exquisite work- 
manship of the devil of matrimony. 

" We next invite attention to the operations of the 
devil of connubial infidelity. The darkest chapter of 
California history is that in which is recorded the 
disruption of family ties, and the darkest pages in 
that chapter of darkness are blackened with details 
of connubial infidelity. You could imagine that they 
were written with a quill from the wing of a fallen 
angel, dipped in ink made of the burning tears of 
grass-widows and widowers, and of deserted children, 
who might well envy the lot of hopeless orphan- 
age. 

" We will not tax your patience to listen to a full 



315 



expose* of the delicate yet deadly operations of this 
incontinent devil ; but we will exhibit details suffi- 
cient to put you on your guard against, him. He 
tries to gain an influence over the most of men who 
come to California without their families. We would 
not insinuate that he succeeds with all, for many will 
have nothing to do with him ; but his success has 
been truly extraordinary and alarming, especially 
with those who have been very successful in business, 
and have plenty of money and time at their disposal ; 
also with very many who have been unsuccessful, 
and have been detained beyond the set time to re- 
turn to their families. If he can lead men into bad 
company, familiarize them with debauchery, and fill 
them with rum, they fall an easy prey to his diaboli- 
cal designs. He gives special attention to wives, 
more particularly to beautiful and young wives, en 
route for California, to join their absent husbands. 
He employs a great variety of means for their ruin ; 
wine, flattery, and bribes, in the form of splendid pres- 
ents. In this work of desolation and death he enlists 
government officers, officers of ships, and gallant gen- 
tlemen passengers, as may best suit his purpose. A 
great many ladies, too, not the lowest classes either, 
but wives of all classes, when they start for California, 
are persuaded, by some of the many means employed to 
that end, that when they get to these golden shores they 
will enter into the immediate possession of a fortune, 



316 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

revel in affluence, and move in the most respect- 
able circles of ' high life.' After bidding adieu to 
friends on the other shore, they said, ' Good-by to 
poverty, and toil, and care ; I'm going to the land of 
gold.' Many such arrived just in time to hear of the 
fortunes their husbands had lost, and of those they 
came very near making, and of those they yet expect 
to make, if they have ' good luck.' The poor wife, 
instead of stepping into a mansion all furnished, is 
conducted by her overjoyed husband to a small upper 
room, or rented house, in the city, or to a log-cabin 
' on the plains,' or to a shanty in some ' gulch' in the 
mountains. Everything is different from what she 
expected. She has to go to work with her hands, a 
thing she never intended to do again, and that, too, 
under great disadvantages, in the absence of the 
facilities she has left behind. She has nothing to 
supply the loss of all the pleasant home associations 
from which she has torn herself, except the company 
of her husband, and he is absent most of his time at 
work or attending to outside business. She now real- 
izes the wonderful disparity between the visionary 
ideal and the reality of California life, and feels that 
in some way her husband is to blame for her un- 
happy surroundings. She becomes dispirited and 
petulant, and her husband, not appreciating the great 
change in her circumstances, and laying to heart 
some of her fretful sayings, is not sufficiently patient and 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 317 

sympathizing. Now a series of domestic broils com- 
mences, followed by occasional partial reconciliations. 
"Now the smooth, graceful, honorable Mr. Mus- 
tachio, dropping in occasionally to spend an evening, 
as the special friend of the family, manifests a great 
deal of sympathy for the poor woman. He thinks it 
a pity that a lady of so rare excellence should be re- 
duced to such drudgery, and to cheer her up he pre- 
sents her with a few 'gold specimens,' and some arti- 
cles of jewelry it may be. Then he thinks that, with 
the consent of the husband, an occasional i carriage 
or buggy ride' would be very serviceable to her 
health; and, as the husband has neither time nor 
money to spare, and as the honorable gentleman has 
plenty of both, his services, so disinterestedly prof- 
fered, are very cordially and thankfully accepted. 
All that is necessary now to restore the good lady to 
cheerfulness of spirit and a happy reunion of feeling 
with her husband, is to accompany this generous 
friend of the family to a few balls, and a round or 
two at the theaters. This process, together with the 
inspiring influence of wine, does up the business for 
that family. Woe betide the poor children who are 
the witnesses and victims of such a tragedy; for a 
tragedy it is, more dreadful than that of carnage and 
blood. Yolumes might be filled with the facts which 
have come to light demonstrating the truth of what 
I say. 



818 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" One or two cases from real life may suffice our 
present purpose. Mr. A. and Mr. B. (I have their 
real names, but need not give them) bought and 
improved a * rancho ' in co-partnership in the 
Sacramento Yalley. A., who had a wife c at home,' 
was an honest, hard-working man. B., a single man, 
was a shrewd young lawyer, and had been a Califor- 
nia legislator. He managed to do the trading and 
' outside business,' while A. did the hard work on the 
farm. . He managed, also, to get all the profits, and, 
finally, the title to all the land, and kept the old 
man poor. He persuaded A. to send for his wife ; 
thought she would be very useful in the ' dairy,' and 
also save them much expense for washing bills, and 
could do their cooking. She came, a fine-looking 
lady, expecting to settle down with her clear husband 
in the enjoyment of an easy fortune, on their planta- 
tion in the Sacramento Yalley. But she soon found, 
to her great disappointment, that Mr. B., and not Mr. 
A., was the man of means. She could not work, and 
must be a lady of leisure, at all hazards. Her 
husband, though affectionate and kind, was nothing 
but a poor, honest, hard-working farmer. Mr. B. 
was a gentleman, an honorable legislator, popular, 
young, and good-looking; and, withal, was much more 
attentive to her than her husband had time to be. 
He took her in his buggy, and showed her the beau- 
ties of the landscape. In a short time they united in 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 319 

driving the poor old man off the 'ranch,' and 
together took sole possession. They thus got along 
delightfully till the next election, when Mr. B. again 
ran for a seat in the State Legislature ; but his friends 
had dropped him, and he was badly beaten by a 
man of inferior talents. He then got mad, and left the 
stolen wife. Mr. A. had groped away in disappoint- 
ment and despair, his wife took refuge in a brothel 
in a neighboring city, and the Hon. Mr. B. was justly 

consigned to infamy. He is now in , trying to 

worm his way into the practice of the law, with very 
poor success. Such cattle will be 'marked' in the 
future of California. 

" I saw a poor man dying, up country, a year ago, 
and inquired the cause. Well, he had had an 
accomplished wife, the landlady of his hotel, and she 
was a doctoress. His excellent lady took a notion to 
visit her friends in the East ; and at the same time 
to buy a stock of drugs, and then return to California, 
and give all her attention to the practice of medicine. 
To accomplish all this, it was necessary for her to 
have a certain amount of money, to raise which 
her kind husband mortgaged his hotel, and every- 
thing he had, to their full value, and gave her a 
splendid outfit. When she bade him adieu, her heart 
seemed almost to be breaking; and she concealed her 
face in her handkerchief to hide the tears she did not 
shed. A gallant young gentleman, a particular friend 



320 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

of the family, who had been boarding at the house 
for a number of months, was missing about the same 
time; and the poor husband soon learned that his 
gallant boarder and his wife had set up for them- 
selves in the City of San Francisco. The ' nice young 
man,' as usual, soon deserted the runaway wife ; and 
she found — I was going to say a home, but I will not 
degrade that endearing name with such an association 
— a hiding-place in a den of infamy. The poor hus- 
band, crushed and ruined, sunk beneath the flood. 

" Again, on the other hand, very many respectable 
ladies come here to join their husbands, and find 
them corrupt and degraded. And, while many un- 
fortunate, yet true and faithful husbands, here, have 
been cruelly slandered at home, there are many 
abandoned wretches here, who have long since 
thrown themselves away ; and while living in the 
deepest degradation and infamy, are keeping up 
hypocritical professions and promises to their families 
at home, whom they intend never to see, if they can 
help it. How often have the wives of such come to 
California, and wandered in desolation a thousand- 
fold more dreadful than the widow's weeds, through 
our streets, and valleys, and mountains, inquiring for 
their husbands. I need not multiply illustrations; 
you who have been long in California, can supply 
from the records of your own memory scores of cases. 
Now, for the accomplishment of all this dreadful 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 321 

detail of desolating evils in domestic life in Cali- 
fornia, the devil of connubial infidelity has done 
everything in his power to vitiate correct moral 
principle in the consciences of men and women. 
The moral standard on this subject has become so 
low, and its authority so feeble, that very many have 
said, in regard to the sacred sanctions of the matri- 
monial relation, 'Let us burst the bands of God 
asunder, and cast his cords from us.' 

""We will invite your attention to a few potent 
appliances used by Satan to produce this sad result. 

" First. The insidious Mormon devil of Polygamy. 
Six years ago, when their great Western apostle, 
Parley P. Pratt, was interrogated through a dayly 
journal in this city, whether or not he really did tol- 
erate and advocate such an enormity, he would not 
openly avow it, but gave an evasive reply. Now 
they carry and defend the doctrine of polygamy 
right into the sacred precincts of respectable Chris- 
tian families, (such a case came under my own observ- 
ation but a few weeks ago,) and openly advocate 
it throughout the land. 

" Second. The spiritual union doctrine of Andrew 
Jackson Davis, the sum of which is, the only legiti- 
mate and valid matrimonial bond is a spiritual bond 
ordained by the Creator, from the beginning, or from 
the birth of each pair, and that the evidences of this 
union 1 are entire oneness of thought, and feeling, and 

21 



322 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

sympathy, and purpose, and action. But hear what 
the ' great apostle of modern spiritualism' says on the 
subject. 'True marriages are natural, inevitable, 
harmonious, and eternal ! By the assistance of inte- 
rior perception and comprehension, I was enabled to 
ascertain the glorious and consoling truth, that every 
spirit is born married ! When I gaze upon an infant, 
a youth, a lonely individual, the voice of intuition 
and true philosophy says, "That infant, that youth, 
that lonely individual, has somewhere an eternal 
companion." Therefore, I perceive and understand 
that a meeting, and in the present state of society, a 
legal recognition, of such companions is an outward 
expression of true marriage. And yet no ceremony, 
no promise, no written or legalized agreement, can 
unite that which is internally and eternally joined ; 
nor can these solemnities unite that which is inter- 
nally and eternally separated.' 'The best evidence 
that two individuals are not naturally and eternally 
married is, that by dwelling together they generate 
discord, discontent, disrespect, and unhappiness.' — 
Great Harmonia, vol. ii, pp. 203, 204. 

"It is very easy for all newly-married parties to 
believe that their union is ' natural, inevitable, har- 
monious, and eternal,' and therefore valid. But how 
easy for a man or woman, under the influence of this 
fallacy, to come to the conclusion, in the moment of 
any one of the ten thousand petty annoyances in the 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 823 

domestic circle, incident to the rough voyage of life, 
that a mistake had been made in their union, and 
that, so far from being bound to each other, they 
were actually living in adultery, and that it was, 
therefore, their duty to separate and go in search of 
the real mate. Who can anticipate the mischief yet 
to result from such a doctrine? It is boldly asserted 
that already one million of Americans have become 
the disciples of Andrew Jackson Davis. 

" Third. The early legislation of California, ex- 
empting men from legal penalties for seduction, has 
had its influence ; and, 

"Fourth. The very accommodating divorce laws 
of our state. 

"We would respectfully submit a few corrective 
suggestions. 

" First. Let the moral bands of society be strength- 
ened: 1. By a careful study and conscientious adher- 
ence to Bible teaching on this subject. 2. By a 
repudiation of those disorganizing forces above enu- 
merated. 

"Second. Let greater precaution and protection be 
secured for traveling wives and daughters, en route 
to California. And let there be an end at once of the 
separation of families, by emigration to California. 
If a man cannot bring his family with him, let him 
remain with them where he is. The exceptions to 
this rule may be pleaded on their peculiar merits. 



324 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

"Third. While husbands exercise proper restraint 
over their wives and daughters, in regard to the in- 
sinuating advances of corrupt men, in regard to balls 
and theaters, the recruiting stations of the devil of 
incontinence, they should, at the same time, and all 
the time, exercise great patience, and manifest 
a just appreciation of the change in the circumstan- 
ces of their families, and the new and unexpected 
trials to which they are subjected, and always exhibit 
sincere sympathy, and do their utmost to render 
home attractive and pleasant. Even the setting of a 
fruit-tree or a rose-bush will contribute toward a circle 
of attractions which cluster about the idea of ' home.' 

"Fourth. Let husbands and wives ofteu talk and 
pray together, and employ their time and energies, 
as far as practicable, in their mutual improvement of 
mind and heart, and in the corporeal, mental, and 
moral development of their children. 

"Fifth. Let all adulterers and seducers be marked 
and shunned as are the seduced ; at any rate, until 
there is indubitable evidence of repentance and 
reformation. 

"Sixth. Let the family altar be sanctified and main- 
tained in every family, and let the incense of a pure 
worship ascend therefrom every evening and morn- 
ing, the deep impressions of which shall cause every 
member of the ' family band ' to sing down to the 
evening of their lives. 



A "LEGION' 1 OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 325 

" ' How painfully pleasing the fond recollection 

Of youthful connections and innocent joy, 
When bless'd with parental advice and affection, 

Surrounded with mercy and peace from on high, 
I still view the chairs of my father and mother, 

The seats of their offspring as ranged on each hand, 
And that richest of books, which excels every other, 

The family Bible, that lay on the stand. 

The old-fashioned Bible, the dear blessed Bible, 
The family Bible, that lay on the stand/ etc. 

" The Prince Diabolos of libertinism is a very ex- 
traordinary spirit, extensively patronized in Califor- 
nia. A young man who came to his altars, was re- 
quired to bring a sacrifice. He was a beautiful 
youth, in the bloom of health, having a sound physi- 
cal constitution, a brilliant intellect, a good collegiate 
education, a competent fortune, honorable parentage, 
lovely virgin sisters, who almost idolized him, a re- 
spectable circle of friends, a bright future of personal 
opulence and honor, to say nothing of usefulness in 
the world, and a happy eternity beyond. Well, what 
will you think, when I tell you that the tyrannical 
demon required him to bring all the interest he had 
in all these % You will think that he ought to 
have fled away as from the ' deadly upas.' But, 
sirs, he immediately commenced to prepare his offer- 
ing, health, wealth, his interest in parents and friends, 
reputation, prospects of future weal, conscience ; 
his interest in the atonement of Jesus, and all his 



326 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

hopes of heaven, all, all were brought and laid on the 
altar of base passion, at the feet of an infamous woman, 
and then ' he goeth after her straightway, as an ox go- 
eth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of 
the stocks, till a dart strikes through his liver.' I 
heard his dying wail as he sank beneath the dark 
waters of the most horrible of all deaths. I can take 
you to our hospitals, within twenty minutes, and show 
you the wrecks of such youths as they lay 'stranded' 
along the coast of death. 

" Of the department of slander, we will simply re 
mark, that the slang devil, who is beginning to figure 
pretty conspicuously in California, is one of the very 
meanest of all the catalogue of devils. 

" The childrenh department is managed with the 
most consummate skill. If a contract could be made 
with his Satanic majesty, by which we could convey 
to him, by a bill of sale, all California sinners over 
forty-five years of age, in exchange for all the chil- 
dren under fifteen, it would be a most advantage- 
ous arrangement for the Church and the world. But 
Satan will make no such bargains. He feels that he 
is sure of you, old sinners. He has already foreclosed a 
mortgage on the most of your souls. The ' time for 
redemption ' has nearly expired. He has you safe 
enough, and is determined to have the children too, 
for which end he employs extraordinary and various 

He provides amply 



A ''LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 327 

for the education of their heels and toes, to the neglect 
of their heads and hearts. Great pains are taken to 
prepare young girls for a graceful display in ' polite 
society,' where the smooth, insinuating Messrs. Mus- 
tachio figure so gracefully, with most disgraceful 
results. Worldliness and vanity seem to be para- 
mount in the training of children, while sobriety, in- 
dustry, and ' the fear of the Lord, which is the begin- 
ning of wisdom,' are secondary considerations. To 
facilitate this great work, fashionable balls and thea- 
ters come in for a full share of the business, and ' Lee 
and Marshall ' give annually a free ticket for all the 
public schools of our city to their ' circus,' with all the 
elevating associations of the ' pit.' When the parents 
of these precious germs of immortality are called to 
answer for the responsibility involved in their solemn 
charge, and the Judge Eternal shall say, 'Where 
are my lambs committed to your care V how shall 
they be able to stand ? 

"ISTow, in conclusion, allow me to inquire, 'What are 
you going to do about this diabolical business?' The 
facts we have educed, substantially, you cannot deny, 
and they suggest legions of kindred facts to your 
minds, equally dark and damning. However we 
may differ in regard to the theories by which to 
account for these facts, we all agree as to the facts 
themselves, and that they ought to be remedied. 
Some of you have denied the existence of devils^ and 



328 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

others of you have repudiated the doctrine of human 
depravity / but I ask yon, How do you explain these 
extraordinary phenomena, the actual developments 
of sin, the truth of which you all admit ? If you deny 
the existence of devils, then you have to set down all 
these deeds of darkness to the account of human 
depravity, and you thereby make man nothing more 
nor less than an incarnate devil. If you repudiate 
human depravity, and set down all these iniquitous 
developments to the account of Satan, then the ques- 
tion arises, How is it that men, purely innocent, 
should be so completely under the dominion of the 
1 wicked one V The only rational theory is that re- 
vealed in the Bible, which asserts the existence of 
devils and their commerce with men, and asserts as 
well the deep depravity of the human heart. You 
cannot account for the dreadful developments of sin 
in your own hearts, and its manifestations all around 
us, on any other theory. Now, where shall we find 
a remedy % The only physician who can effect a 
cure, is He to whom the demoniac of Gadara applied. 
Many of you have tried other means, but you have 
got worse and worse. His terms are, that you 
come to him, without price, submit your case, and 
trust him for a cure. See the man from the tombs ; 
he is coming to Jesus. See him run and fall down at 
his feet, worshiping him, and exclaiming, ' O, Mas- 
ter, for pity sake, save me from these tormentors!' 



A u LEGION" OF CALIFOKNIA DEVILS. 329 

He is a sincere penitent, depend npon it. What is 
that he is saying ? ' What have I to do with thee, 
Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure 
thee, by God, that thou torment me not.' That is 
your sincere penitent, is it ? ' He is drunk, or crazy, 
or else he wants to turn the whole thing into ridicule.' 
Nay, that is the devil that is speaking through the 
vocal organs of the poor sinner. The man is a sincere 
penitent, nevertheless. His case exhibits outwardly 
the secret struggle you feel in your heart to-day. 
The Spirit of God is working on his conscience. Un- 
der its influence he runs to Jesus, and sues for mercy. 
The devil is also at work with him. Under his influ- 
ence he cries, ' What have I to do with thee, Jesus, 
thou Son of the most high God % Depart from me.' 
Have you not felt this war of the spirits a thousand 
times ? Do you not now feel that you ought to come 
to Christ ? And do you not feel a desire to become a 
sincere Christian ? The Spirit of God is now ' work- 
ing in you to will and to do his good pleasure.' That 
is the attraction of grace that leads to God. Do 
you not, also, feel an inward tide of carnal enmity, 
'not subject to the law of God,' manifesting itself 
to your consciousness in spiritual apathy, hardness 
of heart, insubordination to the will of God, and 
which says to Jesus, 'What have I to do with 
thee?' That is the repulsive power of diabolized 
human depravity. Why will you not now come to 



330 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Christ and be saved ? ' O, my heart is too hard.' 
There it is, sir ; that is the very thing to be remedied, 
and Jesus Christ alone can remedy it. If it be 
human depravity, you cannot free yourself from it, 
nor subdue, nor improve it. You must submit it to 
the great Physician just as it is. If it be the devil 
in possession of your heart, do you imagine that you 
can convert the devil, or free yourself from him, or 
get his consent to let you come to Christ, without a 
violent struggle? You can do not one of these any 
more than you can vail with darkness the noonday 
sun. If you are ever saved, you have to come to 
Jesus, as did the Gadarene. Bring your depravity, 
just as it is. Bring your devils, in spite of all their 
clamor and opposition, to the feet of Jesus. He is 
here in Sacramento-street, this afternoon, as really as 
he was present to the poor man who had the i legion,' 
present in his spiritual nature, in his essential Di- 
vinity, in all the plenitude of his saving mercy, now. 
He is very desirous to save you from your sins, and 
from Satan's power to-day. Never say again, ' I can- 
not go to Jesus, because I do not feel like it.' That 
is the strongest possible argument why you should 
come without delay. 

" Allow me, for your encouragement, to give you 
a few illustrations of the attraction and repulsion you 
feel to-day ; that war of the spirits in your bosom. 

"John B. Youngs, a friend of mine in Baltimore 



A "LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 831 

City, went to the altar as a seeker of religion, because 
his judgment was enlightened, and he believed it to 
be his duty ; but for a week, though he went forward 
every night, his heart was so hard, that, when any 
brother went to speak to him, he could hardly keep 
from cursing him, and telling him to go away and 
let him alone : but he submitted his case to Christ, 
and was cured, and became a most exemplary and 
useful Christian. 

" One Sunday night, in the fall of 1853, after 
preaching and prayer-meeting in ' the Bethel,' a pale, 
sickly-looking young man attracted my attention. 
Taking him by the hand, I said, ' How are yon, my 
friend ? you appear to be unwell.' ' Yes,' replied he, 
' I am unwell, and am a very miserable man. I have 
been to the hospital, and am jnst recovering from a 
spell of sickness. I am hardly able to work, and 
have no employment if I were able. I am out of 
money, and have not one friend in God Almighty's 
earth.' I then passed round his hat among the breth- 
ren, and 'made a raise' for him. I then said to him, 
'Would you not, my friend, like to enjoy religion; 
to give your heart to God, obtain the pardon of all 
your sins, and become a good Christian V ' I would, 
sir,' said he. ' There is nothing in this world I de- 
sire so much as religion.' ' Are you willing,' said I, 
' to kneel down here, and ask God, for the sake of 
Jesns Christ, to give you pardon?' 'No, sir,' said 



332 STBEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

he, ' not now.' ' Why not now V ' I don't want to 
make a mock of the thing,' replied he. ' My heart is 
as hard as a stone, and feeling as I do, it would be 
hypocrisy for me to kneel down there. I don't want 
to seek religion until I can feel more on the subject. 
It will do me no good to say a prayer unless I feel it 
in my heart.' * Have you been religiously trained ii? 
your boyhood ?' I inquired. ' Well, sir,' said he, 
'when I was a little boy my parents moved from 
]S"ew-Jersey to the wilderness of Indiana. I was 
there brought up in isolation from all society. I 
never had a friend. I never saw but one man with 
whom I sympathized, and don't know that I ever 
,saw one that ever sympathized with me. My father 
was a professor of religion, but he did not pray in his 
family, nor do his duty. I saw him die, and did not 
shed one tear, such was the hardness of my heart 
then, and I feel just so now toward all the world. I 
heard you preach this morning, and you struck a 
tender chord in my heart, and I came back to-night, 
hoping to receive some benefit; but you didn't strike 
the right string to-night. And those cold, hypocriti- 
cal prayers ; my God, they like to have killed me. 
When that man was praying over there, I could 
hardly keep from telling him to hush.' 'Well, my 
friend,' said I, 'you are in a bad condition, and the 
sooner you get your case into the hands of the great 
Physician, the better for you. In the midst of all 



A u LEGION" OF CALIFORNIA DEVILS. 333 

this carnal enmity yon exhibit, I perceive, by the 
desires you express, and by the tears you are shed- 
ding, (for he was weeping through the whole conver- 
sation,) that God's Holy Spirit is operating on your 
heart, and it will be at the peril of your soul that 
you leave this house to-night without submitting to 
the claims of God upon you. After all, it is your 
pride that prevents you from bowing as a penitent 
before God, in presence of these brethren.' * That is 
a fact,' replied he ; ' I believe you are right.' And 
down he kneeled, and went to praying with all the 
apparent earnestness of the poor i publican.' There 
he wept and pleaded for mercy, under the attractive 
power of the good Spirit, for about thirty minutes, 
when suddenly, just as in the case of the Gadarene 
mourner, the wicked spirit got the ascendency, and 
the repulsion was so strong, that he at once ceased 
to pray, and said, i My God, I have heard enough of 
cold preaching and praying in my time, and have 
seen enough of hypocritical pretensions to damn the 
world, I wonder that I am out of hell. I don't be- 
lieve I ever saw but one good Christian in all my 
life. I sought his acquaintance, but he did not recip- 
rocate my attentions, and I do not certainly know 
that he was a good man. The Church is full of hyp- 
ocrites.' ' Well, now, my good fellow,' said T, ' the 
hypocrisy of the Church, and the sins of other men, 
are not the questions for you to discuss at this time. 



334 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

The question is now between God and your own soul. 
You have sinned, you are under sentence of death, 
and in bondage to Satan. God now invites you by 
his Spirit to be reconciled to him. What have you 
to do now with the sins of others ? You have enough 
to do to dispose of your own, and your only hope is 
to cast them upon your crucified and risen Jesus.' 
' That's true,' said he; ' O Lord, for the sake of Jesus 
Christ, have mercy on my poor soul.' He then prayed 
earnestly for about twenty minutes, we laboring 
with him with appropriate zeal. Then he suddenly 
stopped again, and said, 'I don't want man to con- 
vert me. If God don't convert me, I don't want to 
be converted at all.' 'Well, then,' said I, ' call upon 
him ; all the men in the world, and all the angels in 
heaven added, cannot relieve you. Jesus Christ 
alone is able to save you.' He went at it again with 
increasing earnestness, and in half an hour was, like 
David, brought up out of a- horrible pit and the 
miry clay. His feet were set upon a rock, his 
goings were established, and a new song was put 
into his mouth, even praise to God. Two years after- 
ward he took his certificate of Church membership as 
he embarked for the East to see his widowed mother. 
" ]STow, my dear sirs, if you would decide the issue 
of that war in your hearts, and save your souls, come 
to Christ now, just as you are. Here is Captain 
M'Donald. Many of you know that he was one of 



A HARD CASE. 385 

the worst sinners in this city; utterly abandoned. 
He had given np all hope of ever trying to reform. 
Three years ago, listening to the preaching of the 
Gospel on the Plaza, a ray of hope — the hope that, 
bad as he was, he yet might be saved — penetrated his 
heart. He went from the Plaza to the Bethel, and 
before ten o'clock that very night he was happily 
converted to God. He has walked in and out before 
you ever since; and put your finger on a single devia- 
tion from consistent Christian deportment in his con- 
duct if you can. He had been all through the Mexi- 
can war, and for many years in the United States 
Navy. His associations were all bad, and up to 
within a few weeks of that blessed day when he sur- 
rendered himself to God, he had not drawn a sober 
breath for ten years. See what the grace of God 
hath wrought. ' We pray you, in Christ's stead, be 
ye reconciled to God.' Proceed at once in the light 
of these examples, and close with his proffered terms 
of saving mercy." 

A HARD CASE. 

On Tuesday, the nineteenth of August, 1856, the 
second day after the above discourse was concluded 
on Sacramento-street, a very intelligent-looking man 
called at my house, and requested a private interview. 
He was trembling with emotion, and seemed afraid 
to give utterance to what was evidently a great bur- 



336 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

den on his soul. I tried to make him easy, assuring 
him that I was willing to do anything for him I 
could. 

Said he, "In your discourse on California devils 
you gave a number of cases of men who had been 
guilty of seduction and connubial infidelity, and, 
though you concealed their names, I know I must be 
one of the men you referred to. You have doubtless 
heard of my case." 

" No, sir," said I ; " I never knew nor heard of you 
before." 

" Well," continued he, " mine is a dreadful case, as 
bad or worse than any you mentioned in your ser- 
mon." He then paused, and groaned, and wept. 
" I have never told a living man my situation, but 
ray distress of mind was so great I thought I would 
come and see you. I thought some of going to see 
Dr. Scott, but I concluded that, as you had been so 
long in California, you would know better how to 
treat my case than anybody else. I walked for a 
quarter of an hour on the sidewalk in front of your 
house, questioning in my own mind whether to come 
in or not ; but something seemed to say to me, ' Go 
in ; if you do not, you will certainly go to hell.' So I 
came in, but no living mortal can tell what I suffer ; 
and yet my sufferings are nothing to what I de- 
serve." 

Again he paused and wept. Then resuming his 



A HARD CASE. 337 

story, he said: "Father Taylor, the confession I am 
about to make is of the most dreadful and humiliat- 
ing character. O that I could blot it out forever 
from the book of memory, and the book of God. In 

the State of I was a minister of the Gospel. I 

then enjoyed religion, and tried to lead a holy life. 
I was happy. I left there a pious, good wife and two 
children, six years ago, and came to California. I 
engaged in the practice of law, made money, lost my 
religion, and became an occasional gambler; I se- 
duced a man's wife, and took her away. The man 
afterward died. I got tired writing lies to my wife 
at home, and ceased to write, and receiving no let- 
ters from her for a year, I concluded she was dead. 
I then got married to the woman I had taken, and 
we have ever since lived together and passed for hus- 
band and wife. I afterward learned that my wife at 
home was not dead, but was still living in the same 
place with her children. I have three children by 
my present wife. This thing has preyed upon my 
mind for years. I have often talked to my wife here 
about it, and she has also suffered great distress on 
account of it. She is a sensible woman, and wants to 
be a Christian. In my distress I have resorted to the 
bottle for comfort, and have been getting worse and 
worse. I was drinking last Saturday night in the 
very same house where Captain II. was drinking be- 
fore he committed suicide ; and I feel that I have 

22 



338 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

got down to the lowest point of degradation, and 
unless I can obtain relief I shall soon be in hell. I 
should have committed suicide myself long ago, and 
put an end to my earthly sufferings, but I am afraid 
to die. I never will in my senses take my own life ; 
for in all my wickedness, I have never doubted the 
truth of the Bible, and I dread the future. I believe 
in the atonement by Jesus Christ, and that is my only 
hope ; but my relations in life are so complicated that 
I cannot seek his mercy, and I see no chance for my 
poor soul; but if you can see any way of escape, do 
tell me what to clo. My wife at home is a good 
Christian woman, and was always kind to me, and 
our children are smart and interesting. I love the 
woman I am living with, and she loves me, and we 
could live happily together if we were legally mar- 
ried; but I'll submit to anything in this world to 
save my soul from this intolerable hell which I 
suffer." 

" "Well, sir," I replied, " yours is a very bad case, 
but I trust not entirely a hopeless one. I see some 
grounds of hope in the fact that God still preserves 
your life, and in the fact that you still believe the 
Bible, and that you suffer so much remorse of con- 
science for your wrong doing, and especially in the 
strong desire you have to repent of your sins and 
seek the pardoning mercy of God, and in the willing- 
ness you seem evidently to have to submit to any 



A HARD CASE. 339 

mortification or self-denial that God may require, 
that you may save your soul. Your matrimonial re- 
lations are exceedingly complicated, and all we can 
do in regard to them at present is to settle a few 
facts and principles in the premises, and then wait 
the developments of a wise and merciful Providence 
for the issue. In the first place, your wife at home is 
your only lawful wife, and yet your other woman 
has claims upon you for support and for the support 
of your children by her, which you cannot, in jus- 
tice, disregard. But while you must not allow them 
to suffer from neglect, it w T ill become necessary for 
you to vow uncompromising celibacy, if not forever, 
at least until the whole matter, in the order of Prov- 
idence, is settled according to law, and the spirit of 
the Gospel." 

" That I will do," said he, " most gladly, and con- 
scientiously." 

"Your only hope," I continued, "in the meantime, 
is to submit your case unreservedly to God, and sue 
for pardon in the name of Jesus Christ, and trust to 
the wise Providence of God to open a way of escape. 
God can do it, and he alone. You need not wait to 
see the results of his providence in regard to your 
tangled relationships, before you can experience par- 
don, if your will is entirely subjugated to his will, so 
that you will heartily acquiesce in his decisions, 
whatever they may be. A man of my acquaintance 



340 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

in the State of Virginia, by the name of Beck, invest- 
ed more than all he was worth in a distillery. Just 
at that time a camp-meeting was commenced in the 
neighborhood. lie attended the meeting, and the 
Holy Spirit called him to follow Christ. He hesi- 
tated a few minutes, and said to himself: ' If I seek 
religion I must give up my distillery. If I give that 
up I will beggar my family. If I do not seek religion 
I can make a good living for my family, but my soul 
must go to hell.' He immediately presented himself 
at the altar, and said: 'Lord, I'll trust my family in 
thy care, and seek the salvation of my soul. O Lord, 
I have built a "still house," which I know I must 
give up before thou wilt pardon my sins, but I want 
the pardon of my sins to-night, for before to-morrow 
I may be dead. O Lord, if thou wilt trust me, and, 
for the sake of Jesus Christ, forgive my sins to-night, 
I will go home to-morrow morning, if spared, and 
knock every tub to staves, throw out the still, and 
never make one drop of liquor.' That very night he 
was redeemed from sin, and I heard him afterward 
say, in a class-room, after relating his experience, 
'God saw my sincerity, and converted my soul on 
credit? He kept his word with the Lord, to the 
letter. He destroyed every ' tub,' and converted the 
building into a mill. I have often seen his still, for 
he never would sell it, lest it might be used for the 
purpose of making liquor, and affect his contract 



A HARD CASE. 341 

with the Lord. Just so, my dear sir, if you honestly 
and unconditionally submit to the will of God in ad- 
vance, in view of all possible contingences, God will 
' convert you on credit.' You may obtain mercy to- 
day, by unreserved submission and simple trust in a 
living Saviour." "We then spent some time jn prayer 
together. 

The third time he called to see me, he was pro- 
fessedly, and, I believe, truly happy in God. When 
he came again, he said : 

" I have written to my wife, and have told her all 
about my dreadful wickedness and wretchedness. I 
told her that I had so betrayed her confidence and 
disgraced myself, that I was not worthy of her, and 
that if she desired to obtain a divorce, I would fur- 
nish her all necessary information and evidence ; but 
that if, in view of all the facts in the case, she still 
preferred me as her husband, I would make provision 
for my family here and go home. I have done this 
with the knowledge and consent of my woman here. 
I leave the matter in the hands of God. I am happy 
in the love of God, and I believe he will bring to 
pass that which is right under the circumstances, and 
I shall be most happy to submit to his will." 



342 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHAPTEE LII. 

THE SEBASTOPOL OF "OLD NICK." 

The city of San Francisco may, with propriety, be 
regarded as the very Sebastopol of his Satanic majesty. 
This city, it is true, can exhibit as many church edi- 
fices at a greater cost, than any other city of its age in 
the world. The people of California are justly pro- 
verbial for their liberality in giving for charitable and 
religious purposes. They also treat a man's religious 
opinions, professions, and eiforts, with more respect, 
probably, than any other new country; and a minis- 
ter of the Gospel can preach in the open streets of 
any city or town in California, day or night, without 
any fear of serious disturbance. Everybody, to be 
sure, will not stop and listen, but nobody will stop to 
interfere with him. But, with all these admissions 
in favor of California in general, and of San Fran- 
cisco in particular, I believe, nevertheless, that it is, 
as yet, the hardest country in this world in which 
to get sinners converted to God. It was a long time 
before even Christians would believe it possible to 
have anybody converted in California; and to this 



THE SEBASTOPOL OF "OLD NICK." 343 

day, the Church in this country has not that faith in 
the omnipotent power of the Gospel, and its perfect 
adaptation to the wants of the people of California, 
which is necessary to consistent and successful effort. 
I now speak of the Church collectively. There are 
many men here of strong faith, and consistent zeal 
in the cause of God. In answer to the question, why 
the successful cultivation of this field is so difficult, 
I remark, that there are many causes, a few of which 
I will note. 1. The migratory character of our pop- 
ulation. The Christian does not settle down long 
enough to get acquainted with his neighbors, and by 
the time he can be sufficiently drilled for efficient 
service, he is off, and the ranks are left unsupplied, 
or, at best, supplied with raw recruits. We bring 
the truth to bear on a sinner's conscience, and feel 
that, by the help of the Lord, we are leading him 
right up the mountain, where flows the blood of 
the all-atoning sacrifice. We look round to see his 
flowing tears, and hear him shout as he beholds the 
crucified, but lo ! he is gone. He has taken passage 
to the mines, or to parts unknown, and we see his 
face no more. Closely related to this difficulty, 

I note, 2. The isolated condition of society. In all 
old-settled communities, each member, however 
humble, is as a link in a chain of association, which 
runs through the whole community. Cut one link, 
and it affects the whole chain. But here the links 



344 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

are nearly all separated, and where there is a connec- 
tion it is generally by open links, which can be slip- 
ped at pleasure. We see this illustrated on funeral 
occasions. It is a very familiar sight here to see an 
unattended hearse moving toward the city of silence. 
"Who is dead?" "Colonel B.," says the driver. Had 
the colonel died at home, he would have been fol- 
lowed by a funeral procession a mile long. (The 
exceptions to this rule are the funerals of Free-masons, 
Odd Fellows, and other associations, which give due 
attention to the burial of their dead.) So in other 
countries ; if you succeed in converting a sinner from 
the error of his way, you can at once avail yourself 
of his influence and relationships to society, by which 
you extend your conquests into the territory of the 
enemy. Through him you reach his parents, his 
wife, and children, brothers, sisters, and intimate 
acquaintances ; a score of souls saved instrumentally 
through that one medium. But in California, 
though the Gospel " battery" may be as powerful as 
in any other country, still, for want of " conductors," 
it does not produce results corresponding with its 
power. Social ties and relationships, and ties of 
blood, are very important "conductors" for Gospel 
" electricity." In these we are deficient. California 
differs, too, from ail other new countries in this re- 
spect. Our other Western States were settled up by 
a gradual emigration of families. Every family was 



THE SEBASTOPOL OF "OLD NICK." 345 

a nucleus of social life. These readily united with 
other families, and very soon communities were 
formed, bound together by strong bonds of social 
sympathy. But here we have in the space of a very 
few years, a population of three hundred thousand 
souls. A state vieing with the great states of our 
Union, in the development of its physical resources, 
while even the foundations of its social life have not 
been permanently laid to this day. The good fami- 
lies interspersed through the state are as deposits of 
leaven, and their influence is appreciably felt; but 
there is such a vast disproportion between the leaven 
and the mass to be leavened, that if the leaven does 
not "die," it will be a long time before "the whole 
lump is leavened." 

This young giant of the "West (the State of Califor- 
nia) is very much like the boy, who, at the age of 
five years, wore his daddy's boots, and whipped his 
mamma, and then took to the sea, where he has 
grown up without parental restraint or the refining 
influence of virtuous female society. He has an 
extraordinary intellect, is a noble, generous-hearted 
fellow, but he thinks as he pleases, acts as he thinks, 
and does not feel that he needs instruction. 

He is like Jeremiah's " wild ass, used to the wil- 
derness, that snufTeth up the wind at his pleasure. 
In his occasion who can turn him away ?" Or like 
Job's unicorn, of which he says, " Will the unicorn 



346 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib ? Canst 
thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? 
Or will he harrow the valleys after thee ?" But if 
these figures are too unseemly, I should say that he 
is like Job's war-horse, whose "neck was clothed 
with thunder. Canst thou make him afraid, as a 
grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible 
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength : 
he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at 
fear, and is not affrighted ; neither turneth he back 
from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, 
the glittering spear, and the shield. He swalloweth 
the ground with fierceness and rage : neither believeth 
he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith 
among the trumpets, Ha ! ha ! and he smelleth the 
battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the 
shouting." But we do not despair of our young 
giant. He is becoming domesticated, and is begin- 
ning to attend Church regularly, and we expect to 
see him converted to God yet, and when converted 
he will be a " Saul among the prophets," head and 
shoulders above his neighbors. There are other 
reasons why it is so difficult to cultivate Immanuel's 
land in California; but when I penned the caption 
of this article, it was with the design of introducing 
a single illustration, drawn from a sort of naval 
engagement I had, before the walls of his Satanic 
majesty's fortifications, a few years ago, the account 



THE SEBASTOPOL OF "OLD NICK." 347 

of which is contained in the following extract from 
my journal: 

" July 5, 1852. — On the twenty-sixth of May last, 
I commenced a protracted meeting on the Bethel 
Ship, which has just closed. At the commencement 
I had a hand-bill printed after this wise : ' A meeting, 
to transact business for eternity, will be held on 
board the Bethel Ship, at the foot of Washington- 
street, commencing this evening at eight o'clock, and 
to be continued every evening for ten days.' The 
bills were neatly printed, presenting a ship under 
full sail. These were posted all through the city. 
At the close of this term, I had another bill printed, 
after the same style, extending the time for thirty 
days more. Thus we met, and preached, and sung, 
and prayed for forty nights. The week-night congre- 
gations averaged from thirty to forty persons. This 
may appear to be a very small attendance, yet these 
were the largest congregations I have ever seen in 
this city at any church through the week, unless on 
some extraordinary occasion, of a single night. I 
have never been able to hold protracted meetings 
here with much success on that account. The result 
of the meeting, so far a3 manifested, is the conversion 
of about ten souls, and a very gracious revival in the 
Church. It strikes me now, more forcibly than ever 
before, that the diabolic enginery by which the 
thousands of this city are being whirled with fearful 



348 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

rapidity toward the pit, is extraordinarily strong, 
more than a million horse power, and no ordinary 
appliances can successfully counteract it. The same 
amount of effort which has been put forth here, 
within the last forty days, would, in any other place 
I ever saw, produce a manifestly glorious result. Our 
meeting, however, thank the Lord, was a good one, 
and I am satisfied that much fruit will yet be seen 
which does not* now appear." 

This country is a great rendezvous for the repre- 
sentatives of all nations, which, in connection with 
the fact of its proximity to the Islands of the Pacific 
and the teeming millions of Asia, constitutes it the 
greatest missionary field in the world. What St. 
Peter saw in vision on the housetop of Simon, the 
tanner, we see now, in fact, here in California, with 
this difference, that when the "great sheet" was let 
down on these shores, it was not drawn up again, as 
when St. Peter saw it ; but the attraction of our gold 
mountains produced such a commotion in the hetero- 
geneous mass contained in it, that the sheet was rent 
from one end to the other, and out, tumbled the 
whole concern, and every fellow of them grabbed a 
pick and shovel and went to digging, and here they 
are to-day. Nor is one of them to be called " com- 
mon or unclean," but all of them are embraced in the 
covenant of promise. Every one of them is the 
purchase of the Saviour's blood, the object of his 



THE SEBASTOPOL OF u OLP KICK." 349 

sympathy and continual intercessions. Let Chris- 
tians, therefore, everywhere pray for the conversion 
of California. Let all the appliances of Gospel war- 
fare be furnished and employed against this Sebas- 
topol of Satan. Let it be stormed by the allied forces 
of King Immanuel, and very soon we will control 
the whole empire of darkness, and, under the banner 
of the cross, will march to the conquest of the 
world. 



350 STREET PREACHING IN" SAN FRANCISCO. 



CIIAPTEE Lin. 

TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 

An extract from my journal may furnish an idea of 
what poor patients in the City Hospital had to suffer 
in the year 1849, and early part of 1850. The city 
paid five dollars per day for the care of each patient ; 
but bedding, and provisions, and medicine, and nurse 
hire, were all enormously high ; and the profits of the 
contracting physician would be great or small, in 
proportion to his outlay for those appliances of com- 
fort for the sick. The nurses too, in most cases, 
were exceedingly reckless. The visiting committee 
of the city did not go in unceremoniously, at all 
hours, as I did, and hence saw less of how things 
were managed. Many of the facilities of comfort 
now enjoyed in the hospitals here, however, could not 
then be obtained. But to the extract : 

" Sunday, January 13, 1850. — Yisited the hospital 
to-day, (after class-meeting, at which more than fifty 
persons were present, and a glorious season we had.) 
Two poor fellows whom I visited, and with whom I 
prayed yesterday evening, were in their coffins. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 351 

Another, by the name of Pitenger, a member of the 
Baptist Church, from New- York, where he had left a 
clerkship, at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars per 
year, was very low. He is quite an interesting 
young man, but confessed with great sorrow his back- 
slidings. He expressed his confidence in Christ, and 
hope of heaven, but feared that his unfaithfulness 
would shut him out." I believe Pitenger went to 
heaven. 

S. SWITZER, OF ROXBURY. 

"Poor S. Switzer, from P., was dying. He had 
been very penitent for some weeks, and professed to 
experience some peace, though not a clear evidence 
of pardon. He did not think his end so nigh. There 
was a peculiarly mournful, yet hopeful interest, 
attached to the case of Brother Switzer. He has 
been sick several weeks. Says he: 'I lay for whole 
nights together without anything to wet my parched 
lips. A mug of tea is set on the shelf, there, for me ; 
but I am too weak to reach it. Here I lie, in my own 
filth. I have not been taken up, nor has my bed 
been cleaned for several clays ; but though separated 
from my family, and confined in this dreadful place, 
I am happy, my soul is happy in God. I shall soon 
be released, and shall suffer no more.' Tears of joy- 
ous hope ran down his sunken cheeks, as he dis- 
coursed on the glorious prospects of future blessedness 



352 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

which opened before him." I attended his funeral on 
the fifteenth of January, 1850. He was a member of 
the Congregational Church. He informed me that 
he had a wife and three children in Roxbury, of 
whom he spoke with great affection, commending 
them to the care of the Lord when he was dying. 
I have no doubt that he landed safely in the haven of 
rest, at the right hand of God. May his wife and chil- 
dren be so happy as to meet him on Canaan's coast. 

Query: Why should a good man be reduced to 
such an extremity of destitution and suffering? 
According to St. Paul, (Romans viii, 10,) though 
Christ be in us, implying all attainable goodness in 
this life, the body is nevertheless dead, legally dead, 
because of sin ; still, under the unmitigated sentence, 
" Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," 
this sentence is alike executed upon old men and 
babes, good men and bad. As for the extreme suffer- 
ings of some more than others, there are, doubtless, 
disciplinary reasons in the Divine administration, to 
develop certain graces, and the better to prepare the 
believing soul for an " eternal weight of glory." The 
rewards of vital piety are purely spiritual ; and all, 
except the foretastes necessary for our encouragement 
and usefulness here, are to be revealed beyond the 
swelling flood of Death's dark river. "But if the 
Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead 
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 353 

shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit 
that dwelleth in you." 

The resurrection power of Jesus, through which 
the believing soul is, by the Spirit of God, raised 
from the death of sin here, will, by the same Spirit, 
be applied to every essential particle of our bodies, 
and thus redeem them from all the evil consequences 
attendant upon the fearful wreck of sin, under which 
they went down into corruption's deepest sea. 
"Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is 
written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 



ISAAC JONES AND HIS WIFE MARY. 

In the summer of 1850, this estimable pair arrived 
at San Francisco, from the State of New- York ; I 
believe from Buffalo. They were natives of North 
Wales. They moved into a little house next door to 
our little church on the hill ; and presenting their 
letters, immediately identified themselves with the 
Church, the neglect of which has proved fatal to the 
spiritual life of many in this land. Brother Jones 
was a local preacher, and by trade a printer. He 
wrought here in the office of the " Evening Pica- 
yune." He entered into a special agreement with the 
proprietor of that journal, that he should never be 

23 



354 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

called on to set type or do any work on Sunday. 
Some weeks afterward, Lis employer said to him one 
Saturday night: "Jones, the steamer has just ar- 
rived, and we have so much new matter to set up, 
that I want you to lend a hand with the boys, and set 
up a few thousand ems to-morrow." " My dear sir," 
replied Jones, " I am willing to work till twelve 
o'clock to-night, and commence work again at one 
o'clock on Monday morning; but you know I told you 
in the commencement, that it was against my princi- 
ples to work on Sunday, and we made an agreement 
to that effect." 

" O well, never mind," said the proprietor. 

A few weeks passed pleasantly over the God-fear- 
ing printer's head, when late one Saturday night his 
employer said to him again : " Now, Jones, it's no 
use talking; you see what a quantity of matter we 
have to set up for the next issue,- and a great deal of 
it must. go in type to-morrow. It has to be clone, and 
you may just as well help to do it as for the other 
boys to do it all. The fact is, I won't have a man 
about me unless he is willing to work at all times 
whenever he is needed." 

" Well," said Jones, " I shall be very sorry to lose 
my situation, for it is very expensive living here, and 
I am dependent on the dayly labor of my hands for 
the support of my family ; but if my continuance in 
your office and my support depend upon my working 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 355 

on the Sabbath, I'll beg my bread from door to door, 
or starve, if need be, rather than desecrate God's holy 
day." 

After bustling round among the type stands a while, 
the proprietor replied, " Well, Jones, yon are a good 
workman and an honest fellow, and I don't want yon 
to leave me." 

Jones was never asked again to work on the Lord's 
day, and kept his place in that office while he lived, 
and verified in his experience these words of David : 
" Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell 
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. He felt a 
great interest in the spiritual welfare of his country- 
men in this city, and organized a Bible-class for their 
benefit. On the third of November, 1850, he had an 
appointment to preach to them in his own house. 
His friends assembled to hear him preach, and, to 
their utter dismay, found him struggling in the chilly 
grasp of death. 

About ten o'clock the night preceding he was 
seized with the cholera, which did its fatal work 
in fourteen hours. He said, as he was sinking, " I 
have a Friend. It is all light about me. I shall soon 
get home." 

His conduct in life and experience in death were 
just the opposite of those of a poor fellow I visited in 
the hospital a few months before. He said to me, as 
he was nearing " the dreary flood :" " I used, to enjoy 



856 STREET PREACHING IK SAN FRANCISCO. 

religion, but when I came to California I thought it 
was necessary to work on Sunday, and do as other 
people did, or I could not get along. Working 
seven days in the week and overdoing my strength, 
is, I believe, what broke me down and brought on 
this illness ; and O, my soul ! I have lost my relig- 
ion. I shall die and meet an angry God." 

~No language can portray the wu-etchedness and de- 
spair of that poor man. 

Mary Jones was, in spirit and in piety, the exact 
counterpart of her husband. It seemed there was 
such an affinity between them that they could not 
long be separated from each other, for two days after 
the exit of her " clear Isaac" she was laid low by the 
same fell destroyer, the cholera. About an hour 
before her death, after a dreadful struggle with the 
disease, which appeared to convulse every muscle of 
her frame, she sat up in her bed, and, clapping her 
hands, shouted, "Glory! glory! glory! I shall soon 
meet my dear husband, and shall be with my blessed 
Jesus forever." She then joined me in singing: 

" land of rest, for thee I sigh ; 
"When will the moment come, 
-Vhen I shall lay my armor by, 
And dwell with Christ at home ? 
this is not my home, 
This world's a wilderness of woe; 
This world is not my home," etc. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 357 

She then sung two hymns in her mother tongue. 
I could not understand the sentiment, but could not 
be mistaken in the spirit in which they were sung. 
Her voice was strong and clear, and as sweet, I 
should say, as the melody of the spheres. At that 
moment her physician, a German, still living in this 
city, came in to see his dying patient, and there she 
sat singing as cheerily as a lark. The doctor stood in 
the doorway through which he was entering, and 
gazed in utter astonishment till the melody ceased, 
and said, " Why, how she sings !" 

As the tide of life ebbed out, and she was no longer 
able to shout and sing, she repeated, in soft whispers, 
" Jesus, Jesus, O my precious Jesus !" She was 
buried beside her husband in " Yerba Buena Ceme- 
tery," to await with him the certain fulfillment of 
that Divine announcement by the mouth of St. Paul, 
" If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the 
dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the 
dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his 
Spirit that dwelleth in you." 



358 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



HENRY DUNN, 

Came to California about the close of the year 
1849. He was but a youth, on which account, and 
on account of his uncle, ¥m. Eades, an old friend of 
mine in Georgetown, D. C, I felt a great interest in 
him. When I found him in the hospital he was still 
able to walk about, and thought he should soon get 
better. I invited him to come and stop at our house 
until he should recover. He accepted the invitation, 
and said he would come in a day or two from that time. 
When I called again, however, I was astonished to 
find that he had suddenly been seized with spasms, 
which had brought him rapidly down to the gates of 
death. He, however, had some time before embraced 
religion, and seemed fully prepared for his exit. On 
Sunday night, the seventeenth of March, 1850, after 
recovering from a dreadful spasm, he sung, with a 
clear voice : 



" My suffering time will soon be o'er, 

And I shall sigh and weep no more, 
In that morning, in that morning, 
And we'll all meet together in that morning. 

My ransom'd soul shall soar away, 

To sing God's praise in endless day, 
In that morning, etc. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 359 

"I have some friends before me gone, 
And I'm resolved to follow on, 

In that morning, etc. 
They're seated now around the throne, 
And looking out for me to come, 

In that morning, etc." 

On the following Thursday night, March 21, his 
tide of life ebbed out, and he quietly sunk in the re- 
pose of death. He said to me, a few hours before he 
died, "I am ready for death. I shall go to my 
blessed Jesus. I want you to write to Uncle William, 
and tell him I am going to rest, and, though we 
shall never again meet on earth, I appoint to meet 
him, and Aunt Martha, and grandma, and all the 
family in heaven." And again he repeated, "I 
shall meet Uncle William, and Aunt Martha, and 
grandma, and all the family in heaven." 



C. R. HOYT. 



One day in the month of August, 1850, in visiting 
the desolate sick strangers of the City Hospital, I en- 
tered a " ward" in which there were about thirty pa- 
tients. After speaking to a number of them, I pro- 
posed, as was my custom, to sing an appropriate 
hymn, and pray with them. I had never met with 



360 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

any avowed objections among the sick to such a 
proposition, but, on this occasion, a man muttered in 
an under tone, "We don't want any prayers here." 
He, however, became perfectly quiet before the 
prayer was over, and afterward confessed his shame. 

Rising from my knees, a dying young man beck- 
oned me to his bedside. Laughing and weeping to- 
gether, he said, " O, I am so glad to see you ! It is 
so cheering in this wicked place to hear a song of 
Zion, and the voice of prayer." He then gave an ac- 
count of his religious experience, and said in conclu- 
sion: "Here I am, away from my home and my 
friends, a stranger in a strange land, dying ; but the 
blood of Jesus is sufficient for me. I have no fear of 
death." " Yes," I replied, " the blood of Jesus 
Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 

" O, precious truth," said he. u If that were the 
only truth revealed in the Bible, it is sufficient. 
Upon that one truth we could build all our hopes of 
heaven. That one truth received and applied, would 
save the world. Happy ! happy ! happy ! Glory be 
to God, my soul is happy !" Thus C. R. Hoyt, from 
Ohio, left the world. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 361 



MARSHAL B. BROWN. 

In the month of February, 1851, I found in a large 
ward of the City Hospital, then on Pacific-street, 
crowded with patients, a youth from Vigo County, In- 
diana. At first he was not inclined to talk much, but 
after singing and prayer he would have me sit clown 
by his side, and hear his sad tale of sorrow. He said 
in substance that he had embraced religion some time 
before he left home. When he started for California, 
it was with the determination to hold on to his 
religion, and honor Christ wherever he went. 
But in crossing the Plains, hearing nothing but 
profanity, and having many things to try his pa- 
tience, he gradually slid away, and finally lost 
his religion. 

"O how wretched I am," said he. "Here I must 
die in this miserable place. Kot one friend to soothe 
my dying pillow. And then be lost forever !" Mean- 
time, streams of bitter tears flowed down his pallid 
cheeks. 

" What did my blessed Jesus do to you," said I, 
" that you should run away from him and disgrace 
his cause? Did he not treat you well?" 

" O, yes," he replied, " but I have denied him." 



362 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

" Marshal, Marshal, what a pity that you denied 
your Lord ! What are you going to do about it t" 

" O, it is too late now ; I can't do anything. I 
might have saved my soul, but now all is lost !" 

"So thought poor Peter, no doubt," I replied, 
" when he denied his Lord, and behaved so badly in 
the presence of his enemies. But Jesus, though 
grieved at his sin, was loving him all the time, and 
looked after him. That sorrowful, piteous look! 
Peter could not stand it. ' He went out immediately, 
and wept bitterly.' Then was Jesus glad, and the 
angels rejoiced when they saw Peter weeping. 
Such is the sympathy of Jesus and his holy angels for 
poor backsliders. The angel at the tomb of Jesus 
said, ' Go tell the disciples and Peter that he is risen.' 
And soon after it was proclaimed, ' The Lord is risen 
indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon.' Peter sin- 
cerely repented, and was not Jesus kind to him ? 
Marshal, Jesus feels just so toward you to-day. Do 
you hate your sins ? And will you give them all up ?" 

" O yeSj" said he. 

" Then receive Jesus in your confidence, and in 
your heart's affections, now. Trust in him as your 
best friend, and your almighty Saviour, now. His 
blood is now sufficient to secure your pardon. Will 
you do it?" 

"I'll try."' 

I shook his hand, saying, "I leave you in the care 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 363 

of your merciful Saviour; you must submit your 
whole soul and body to him, and every moment 
expect salvation through lijs blood." 

When I went again I saw that he was sinking, but 
the dark clouds had flown, for his wounded heart 
had been healed and gladdened " by the washing of 
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." 

I saw him several times afterward before he died, 
and always found him patient and hopeful, trusting in 
Jesus. He requested me to write to his friends, 
(which I did,) and said, "Tell them to prepare to meet 
me in a better world than this." 

Marshal B. Brown soon afterward bid adieu to 
the hospital, and was conducted, we doubt not, to 
that healthful clime where the inhabitants never say, 
" I am sick." 



WILLIAM H. STEVENS. 

Brother Stevens was from Winnebago County, 
Illinois, where he had a wife and six children. He 
was taken clown sick at a boarding-house on Clarke's 
Point, in Broadway. There were no temperance 
hotels here in those days. Brother Stevens lay in a 
" bunk," in the second story of the building. This 
story was all in one room, and the boarders, of almost 



364 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

every name and nation, were there stowed away in 
tiers of "bunks," as they have them on passenger 
ships ; only in the roughest style. These tiers not 
only extended round the wall on all sides, but were 
built up in crib form, with little passages between 
them, all over the floor. In this most uncomfortable 
place, Brother Stevens lingered several weeks, and 
died. The bar-room, underneath him, was the scene 
of drunken reveling, profane oaths, filthy songs, and 
midnight brawls. The sick man, on one occasion, 
offered the landlord ten dollars if he would, for one 
night, suspend the noise of the bar-room, that he 
might have a little rest ; but quietness could not be 
bought at any price. He requested that some one 
should go for a minister, or any other Christian man, 
to come and see him, but nobody there had time. 
Never having met with the brother, and knowing 
nothing of his case, I chanced to preach, one Sunday 
morning, in the street opposite his window. Hearing 
the welcome sounds of a song of Zion, he got out of 
his bunk, and crawled to the window, and there list- 
ened for the last time to a preached Gospel. The 
text on that occasion was, " The night cometh, when 
no man can work." He wept and praised God at 
that window, for the unexpected privilege, and 
crawled back to his bed, wishing some one would 
tell the preacher that a dying brother would like to 
see him. A man whom he had hired to nurse him 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 365 

finally found my residence, and informed me of the 
sick man. In a few minutes I was by his side. 

There he lay, calm and composed. After speaking 
of his experience during his illness, he said, " I have 
a dear wife and six children in Illinois. I leave them 
in the care of Jesus. I have for many years been a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and have 
proved the sufficiency of the grace of God in a great 
variety of trials. I want you to write to my wife, and 
say to her, ' I die in peace, and go home to heaven. I 
appoint to meet her and the children there.' '' In a 
few minutes afterward, without a groan or a struggle, 
he fell asleep in Christ. 

The next day, Sunday, March 3, 1850, I stood on 
a pile of lumber in Happy Valley, and preached his 
funeral sermon to a large, attentive audience, in the 
open air. The text was, "All flesh is as grass, and all 
the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass 
withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away, but 
the word of the Lord endureth forever." 



ORLANDO GALE. 

The subject of this notice had been sick at the City 
Hospital for many weeks, with chronic diarrhea, a 
disease very prevalent in California in those days, 
and fatal to thousands of early California adventurers. 



366 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

About the first of March, 1850, Orlando, a mere 
walking skeleton, came from the hospital to our 
house, and said that if he remained in the hospital, 
he knew he would surely die, and wanted to know if 
I could do anything for him. I told him to make our 
house his home, and we would do what we could to 
make him comfortable. Dr. May kindly gave his 
services as his physician, and for a fortnight I thought 
he would rally, but he took an unfavorable turn, and 
went down. On Friday, the twenty-second of March, 
while Mrs. Taylor was directing his fading eyes to 
the cross of Jesus, he suddenly found peace in be- 
lieving, and shouted the praise of God. 

I extract from my diary, of March the twenty-fifth, 
the following notice : 

" Poor Orlando died this afternoon. Since he pro- 
fessed religion, last Friday, he has been very peaceful 
and happy. He leaves, in Lowell, Massachusetts, a 
widowed mother. I am very glad we took him to 
our house. He, by possibility, might not otherwise 
have been converted." 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 867 



A. C. CHIP PELL. 

On New- Year's Day, 1852, I visited the State 
Marine Hospital, to pay "the compliments of the 
season" to the sick and dying. After singing and 
praying in a certain ward, an old gentleman, greatly 
emaciated, beckoned me to him. He grasped my 
hand, and wept some time before he could speak, 
and then said, " O, that precious hymn you sing, ' A 
home in heaven.' It fills my soul with rapture. Glory 
be to God ! My soul is full of glory!" He made me 
sing it again, and said, " It makes me forget all my 
sorrows." 

He then told me that he had been a servant of God 
for fifteen years, and that now, in his extremity of 
poverty and affliction, God was unspeakably precious 
to his soul. Said he, " I have a large family in Con- 
necticut, and it would greatly gratify my heart to see 
them once more ; but God, my Father, knows what is 
best. I do not wish to decide the question, whether 
I shall get well, or depart and be with Jesus, which 
is far better. I leave it all in the hands of God. I 
am ready, and will wait his pleasure. Glory be to 
God, 

" ' Not a doubt doth arise, to darken my skies, 
Or hide for a moment my Lord from mine eyes.' M 



368 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

He said to me again, a few days later, " 0, I love 
my friends, and should delight to see them, and to 
kiss them," the tears standing in the furrows of his 
sunken cheeks, " but I would not turn my hand to 
live, unless it is the will of the Lord. I am happy, 
happy, in God. And," continued he, 

" 'Jesus can make a dying bed 

Feel soft as downy pillows are, 
While on his breast I lean my head, 

And breathe my life out sweetly there.' " 

Such were the dying triumphs of A. C. Chippell. 
He soon afterward exchanged a miserable berth in 
the hospital for a mansion in heaven, fitted up for his 
reception by the King of Glory himself. 



MORTON, OF ILLINOIS. 

I have forgotten the Christian name of Brother 
Morton, but I have not a doubt that his " name is 
written in the Lamb's book of life." He was a tried 
Christian. I saw him frequently during his protract- 
ed illness in the hospital, and always found him 
patient, resigned, and happy. 

" All is well," was his favorite hymn, and he inva- 
riably joined me in singing it. He requested me the 
day before his death to write his wife, and tell her, " I 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 369 

die in the faith. I am going to rest. Tell her, I shall 
soon meet our two clear children who have gone to 
heaven, and I want her and our two remaining chil- 
dren to meet me in heaven. Tell her, that my life 
in California is the best end of it." 

"What!" said I, "Brother Morton, have you not 
been sick ever since you came to California ?" 

"Yes," he replied, "I came here sick, and have 
been sick ever since, and have suffered everything 
but death ; but Jesus has been so precious to my soul, 
that it has been the best part of my life." 

His was the experience of a weary pilgrim, who 
had been homeward bound for many long years, and 
was just catching the joyful recognitions of kindred 
faces not seen for half a century. The experience of 
the mariner who had passed through shipwrecks, 
sickness in foreign hospitals, life among the cannibals, 
and dreary years in frozen seas ; a Sir John Franklin 
returning, and now he is in sight of home, his long- 
sought home. 

Near this triumphant Christian lay poor Y., from 
New- York City, who said to me, " My wife is a good 
Christian woman, but I have lived a skeptic, and a 
wicked man. Now my skepticism is all gone. O ! 
if I could but send word to my wife that I have 
obtained religion, and am ready to die, then I should 
be satisfied. But, alas ! I have no such word to send. 
I am a poor sinner, unforgiven." 

24 



370 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Poor fellow, I felt great solicitude on his behalf, 
and prayed for him frequently, but fear he died 
without Christ. 

On the twenty-first of March, 1850, I took Brother 
H. with us to witness the dying triumphs of Brother 
Morton. When I entered his room his eyes were set 
back and motionless, and I thought he was dead, but 
upon examination found that his pulsations, though 
feeble, had not ceased. I supposed him unconscious 
of anything I said, and yet I thought his favorite 
hymn might soothe him in his passage through the 
chilling flood. So I sung, 

"What's this that steals, that steals upon my frame? 

Is it death ? is it death ? 
That soon will quench, will quench this vital flame? 

Is it death ? is it death ?" etc. 

When I commenced singing the second verse, I 
observed his bosom heave, and then he began to 
sigh with emotion. On the third line his eyes 
flashed with heavenly joy, and on the fourth he 
raised his voice distinctly, and sung, 

" To hide my Saviour from my eyes : 
I soon shall mount the upper skies. 
All is well! all is well!" 

As I continued the song, his strength failing him, 
he responded to the sentiment by oft repeating, 
" Halleluiah ! halleluiah T' And the ecstatic halle- 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 371 

luiah died on his lips, when the tide of life sunk too 
lew for utterance. But I doubt not, that on that 
very day, his blood-washed spirit resumed the theme 
in sweeter strains beyond the " swelling flood." 



JAMES F. DIXON. 

This is the Louisiana man referred to on page 
71. He had been religiously educated, had a 
Methodist wife, and was quite an intelligent man, 
but, alas ! had lived " without God." I spent much 
time in trying to lead him to Christ during his long- 
continued illness. At one time he said, "I have 
spent my life in sin, and it is so presumptuous now, 
when dying, to offer myself to God, I cannot have 
the face to do it. I cannot think it possible for him 
to pardon me now. When I was crossing the mount- 
ains on my way to California, I got into great trouble 
in a certain mountain pass; I went away and prayed 
that God would deliver me, and enable me to get to 
California; I felt, though a sinner, that God did 
regard my prayer. But I have no faith in death- 
bed repentance. It's no use." I urged him to throw 
himself on the atonement of Christ as the last plank ; 
sink or swim, to hold on to that, and cry to God for 
help. 



372 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

This conversation took place on the fifth day. of 
April, 1850. I continued, at different times, to labor 
with him until the twentieth of the same month, 
when he said : 

" I give up, I give up all to God. O, that I had 
done it twenty years ago. O, that I could but live 
to serve him ! but to expect his mercy when I am 
worn out and dying ; how can he forgive me ?" 

He continued to struggle for about a week from 
that time, when God, for Christ's sake, gave him the 
evidence of pardon. At his request, I entered his 
name on the class book as a candidate for Church 
membership, but he had served a "probation" of 
only a few weeks, when, by the great mercy of God 
in Christ, I believe he was " admitted into full mem- 
bership" in the Church triumphant on high. 



C. W. BRADLEY. 

Some time in the spring of 1850, on entering a small 
basement room in the City Hospital, on Clay-street, I 
discovered,- by the dim light of a small lamp, three 
men, or rather wrecks of men, for they were worn 
down by disease to mere skeletons. One of them, a 
tall Frenchman, whose language I did not under- 
stand, performed a successful pantomime, to warn 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 373 

me against vermin. I was exceedingly sorry that I 
could not reciprocate his kindness by a message of 
mercy from our common Saviour. He, however, 
seemed very devout while I was engaged in prayer. 
In another corner lay C. W. Bradley, of Louisiana. 
He was too far gone to talk much, but gave his name 
and the address of his wife, and said he enjoyed 
peace with God, through Jesus Christ, and was ready 
to die. The last words I heard him utter were, 
"Tell my dear wife to meet me in heaven." Truly, 
the rewards of virtue are not in this life. 



ROMEO DORWIN.. 

In my weekly visits to the City Hospital, I found, 
on one occasion, in the spring of 1851, a great many 
men who had been scalded and mangled by a steam- 
boat explosion on the Sacramento River. Here lay 
some with broken limbs, and there a tier of poor fel- 
lows with all the skin scalded off their hands, arms, 
and faces, as a substitute for w r hich they were coated 
over with some kind of dough. Humanity was so 
mutilated and masked, that a stranger would have 
asked, "What kind of animals are these?" Who 
can tell what those poor men suffered ? Five years 



374 STKEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

have since elapsed, but the sighs and groans of that 
hour still ring in my ears. 

In the midst of several hundreds who appeared to 
have no experimental acquaintance with God, it was 
indeed refreshing to fall in with such a patient as 
Komeo Dorwin. He told me that he was from Ver- 
mont, where he had a wife and two children; that 
he had been in the service of God for many years, 
and though separated from his family (except one 
son, a young man who was with him) and confined 
in the hospital, amid such very unpleasant surround- 
ings, still God was very gracious to him. His expe- 
rience exemplified the truth of a precious announce- 
ment of Isaiah : " Thou wilt keep him in perfect 
peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he 
trusteth in thee." He took great delight in talking 
about Jesus, and in singing his praise, for though far 
gone in consumption, his voice was clear and distinct, 
both to talk and to sing. I saw him often during 
his decline, and was always asked to sing his favorite 
hymn, the dying sentiments of Bishop M'Kendree : 

" "What's this that steals, that steals upon my frame, 

Is it death ? Is it death ? 
That soon shall quench, shall quench this vital flame, 

Is it death ? Is it death ? 
If this be death, I soon shall be 
From every pain and sorrow free, 
I shall the King of Glory see, 

All is well ! all is well !" etc. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 375 

He joined in the song with remarkable spirit and 
sweetness of voice. It was no ordinary privilege to 
witness the triumphs of faith over the depressing 
facts characterizing the experience of a husband and 
father so far from home. So nnable to help his fam- 
ily, so dependent himself; the sights he saw, the 
sighs he heard, all combining to cast, as it were, the 
pall of death over the sonl and body of any doubtful 
or doubting man, yet I never heard a murmur or 
complaint from the lips of Brother Dorwin. 

"It's all right," said he ; "my Father knows what is 
best. I would like to see my family if agreeable to 
his will, but I have given my dear wife and children 
all up to him ; I leave them in his care. I know he 
careth for them, and he can provide for them with or 
without me. Though I see their faces no more on 
earth, I expect to meet them in heaven. Glory be 
to God! I shall soon get there, and sorrow and suffer 
no more. 

" ' Not a doubt cloth arise to darken the skies, 
Or hide for a moment my Lord from mine eyes.' " 

The night he died, which was the fifteenth of 
April, he seemed conscious for several hours before 
that he never would again see the sun by mortal vis- 
ion, and such calmness and composure as lie manifest- 
ed, I presume never was felt by any man leaving home 
for California. Some of his expressions were as fol- 



376 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

lows : " God is here ; lie is in this room now. The 
angels are here, they are now hovering over me ; 
they wait to bear me np to glory. I shall get home 
to-night." 

Asking for a small looking-glass, and taking it into 
his own hand, he took a last look at himself, seeming 
to scrutinize his dying features with great interest, 
and then, laying the glass aside, he resumed his 
theme of praise to God, and so continued till slowly 
and softly he fell asleep in the arms of Jesus. Will 
his family live for God, and meet him in heaven ? 



WILLIAM CROCKETT. 

I became acquainted with the subject of this notice 
in the month of December, 1850. He was sur- 
rounded by the wounded, diseased, and dying, from 
almost every clime, whom the stern law of necessity 
had driven to the City Hospital, then on Pacific- 
street, San Francisco. A city hospital is a most 
undesirable place, but a gracious refuge for the un- 
fortunate sick stranger. Board and lodging, doctor's 
bills and nurse's wages, were so enormously high 
here in those days that it mattered not how much 
money a man had, if he were sick long,' his purse 
could not but be drained. And after a poor patient 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 377 

" had suffered many things of many physicians, and 
had spent all that he had, and was nothing better, 
hut rather grew worse," then his only alternative 
was to go to the hospital. 

Young Crockett was far gone with bronchitis when 
I first found him. He was greatly distressed about 
the state of his soul. Said he : " I am not prepared 
to die. I was brought up to fear God and to pray ; 
but when I grew to manhood, I went from my home 
in Nashville, Tennessee, to New-Orleans. There I 
fell into bad company, and became very wicked ; 
but all the time, though I could put on pleasantry 
and look a man in the face, I was tormented by a 
guilty conscience. My mother seemed to be talking 
to me all the time in my heart, and pleading and 
praying that I should give my heart to God. I had 
no peace day or night, and now I am completely 
miserable. I know not what to do. O, if I only had 
religion ! I would give the world if I had it, if I 
could obtain the pardon of my sins." 

I assured him that if the world were his, he could 
not with its price atone for the smallest sin he had 
ever committed; that it was a dreadful thing to sin 
against God, involving terrible consequences to soul 
and body here and hereafter. 

" My dear brother," continued I, " what a great 
pity it is that you have spent your youth in this 
miserable business of sinning against God. What 



378 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

have you to show for it? But let us see what God 
says about it. < As I live, saith the Lord God, I have 
no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that 
the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, 
turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die V 
You have willfully departed from God, and there 
must be an unreserved submission of your will to 
him ; an entire acquiescence on your part in his plan 
of saving you. Whatever, therefore, is opposed to 
the will of God must be promptly renounced. What- 
ever he requires must be honestly complied with. 
Do you now hate your sins ?" 

" O yes, and hate myself for having sinned," he 
replied, w^ith great emotion. 

"Are you willing now to renounce them all, sins 
of the life and sins of the heart, to give them all 
up forever?" 

" O yes," said he ; " I am more than willing." 

" Thank the Lord," I added ; " he is now working 
in you to will and to do his good pleasure. His 
pleasure is to have you 'turn and live.' Do you 
now give up all your sins?" 

" I am trying. If I know my heart, I do." 

" Do you now consecrate your soul and body to 
God, 'living or dying, to be the Lord's' without 
reserve ?" 

" I do ; I give him all." 

" You are then ready to receive Jesus Christ as 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 379 

your Saviour now ? His blood now atones for every 
sin you have ever committed. You may now ob- 
tain mercy on his account. His credit never was 
questioned in the kingdom of grace, but he has 
actually deposited into the treasury of immutable 
justice the price of your redemption. 

" ' Believe in him who died for thee; 

And sure as he hath died, 
Thy debt is paid, thy soul is free, 

And thou art justified. 1 " 

He seemed much comforted in believing that 
Jesus had made a deposite for him, which he might 
draw in time to save him from eternal ruin. I left 
him praying and trusting in Jesus. "When I called 
again, I found him peaceful and happy. He said 
that God, for Christ's sake, had pardoned all his 
sins, and that he was not afraid to die. He lingered 
several weeks afterward, quietly reclining on the 
arm of Jesus. 

He was removed from the large crowded ward 
into a small room alone, where he could pray and 
praise without interruption. At his request I ad- 
ministered to him the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, after which he seemed almost overcome with 
joyful emotion. 

He said he wanted to join the Church ; and that 
as his mother was a member of the Presbyterian 



380 STEEET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Church, he thought it would be gratifying to her for 
him to join that Church, which he would do, if I 
had no objections. I advised him to do so ; and 
accordingly introduced to him the Rev. Albert 
Williams, then pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church in this city, who took his name. I was soon 
after called to attend his funeral; and he was de- 
cently interred in the " Yerbo Buano Cemetery," in 
this city. 



DYING MESSAGE OF EDWARD MOW. 

I think it was near the close of the year 1850, I 
held my ear close to the lips of Edward Mow, who 
said : u I want you to write to John T. Cromwell, 
Ontario County, New- York. Tell him that I have 
been sick ever since I landed in California. I got a 
little better, and started for home ; got as far as San 
Francisco, and was taken worse. My hope is firm 
in the Lord, that if we never meet on earth, we may 
meet in heaven." 

He spoke very affectionately of his sister Mar- 
garet, and added: "Tell Mr. Cromwell to remember 
me to all my young friends. Tell him to talk to my 
sister Margaret." He was calm and peaceful, and 
quietly sunk into the sleep of death. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 381 



BROTHER GUY, AND HIS TWO DYING REQUESTS. 

I had frequently conversed and prayed with 
Brother Guy during his illness in the City Hospital ; 
and it was a real pleasure to witness his patience, 
and to hear him talk of the love of Christ. 

A few minutes before his death he said to me, 
"I have two requests to make of you : Don't let them 
bury me until to-morrow ; I would not like to be buried 
alive." (They generally buried their dead immedi- 
ately.) "And I want them to put me down deep 
enough. I don't want the dogs or cayotes " (a small 
species of wolf whose howling could frequently be 
heard from the city) " to get my body." 

"Have you no requests to make in regard to your 
soul ?" inquired I. 

" O, no !" said he, " Jesus will take care of my 
soul." 

Thus, on the seventeenth day of March, 1850, he 
closed his eyes on scenes of suffering and woe in the 
hospital, to open them in the bright visions of eternal 
day. 



382 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHARLES AUROM. 

He was by trade a painter, a member of our 
Church, and a consistent Christian in life, so far as 1 
know. He was seized with cholera about the first 
of November, 1850, and was buried on the third. I 
spent some time with him, on two different occasions, 
during his short illness. In the intervals between 
those awful paroxysms, which so quickly loosen every 
pin in the tabernacle of the soul, he related to me 
his Christian experience : He had been clearly 
converted in Philadelphia, whence he came ; had 
enjoyed much of the love of God ; expressed with 
great regret his unfaithfulness in the cause of Christ ; 
but had never since his profession of religion turned 
his back upon him, and Jesus had never forsaken 
him ; and now that he was dying, he felt his sweet 
pardoning love and sanctifying grace flowing into 
his heart. He was very peaceful, yea, triumphant. 
He was happily disappointed to find that death, so 
dreadful in the prospective, had lost all its terrors. I 
thought it well, indeed, that he had an honest, 
efficient Comforter in the person of the Holy Ghost; 
for human helps, even sincerely rendered, are of no 
avail in such a case. I had there an example of 
those deceptious offers of comfort too frequently ad- 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 383 

ministered to the dying, to their own hurt. As I 
was entering the room of my sick brother, a man 
met me at the door, saying, "He is nearly gone ; he 
can live but a few hours." 

While I was conversing with the patient, the same 
man came in and said, " Keep your spirits up, 
Charley; you'll get better directly; you'll be all 
right in a day or two." 

But, happily for " Charley," he had his " spirits up," 
buoyant with immortal hope. He knew that he 
would be "all right in a day or two;" for he should 
be in that country where the people never die. 

I delivered an address on the occasion of his 
funeral, from the door of the house in which he died, 
to a large audience, which stood with hats off, in 
Montgomery-street. I laid his mortal remains in 
"Yerba Buena Cemetery," to await the awaking 
peals of the last trumpet. 



SAMUEL M. RAMSON. 

On the sixth of November, 1850, I was called to 
the cholera hospital, to attend the funeral of Samuel 
M. Eamson, of New- York. What a scene was there! 
Some convulsed and writhing in pain, such as the 
cholera alone can produce. Others had passed the 



384 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

mortal struggle. The monster had done his fatal 
work, and his collapsed victims lay along the shore 
of Death's dark river for hours, without any pain, till 
the swelling tide swept them away. 

I talked to as many as could converse, and labored 
especially for one poor fellow from Connecticut. He 
said he believed in experimental religion, but did not 
possess it, and had prayed but a few times in his life. 
I tried to instruct him, and urged him, with all the 
earnestness I could command, to try then to pray and 
give his heart to God. I kneeled by his bedside, and 
prayed for him, and after bringing to bear upon him 
all the moral suasion I could call into requisition, I 
said: "]STow, my dear brother, will you make an 
effort to give your heart to Jesus, and seek the par- 
don of your sins?" 

He replied, very coolly, " I'll think about it." 
Poor man, he had had his lifetime to think about it, 
and had done nothing more. Procrastination was a 
leading principle of life with him, and it was the 
strong, all-controlling principle in death. 

u Procrastination is the thief of time : 
Inch by inch it steals till all is gone, 
And to the mercy of a moment leaves 
The vast concerns of an eternal state." 

And that precious moment, on which the soul's eter- 
nal destiny hangs, is not treasured, but decoyed and 
stolen, by the same dreadful rogue that stole the rest. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 385 

So when this poor fellow was dying, like too many, 
alas ! he asked time to consider, whether or not he 
would engage in the business for which our whole 
life was designed. 

Not so with young Ramson. His friend told me, 
that he (Ramson) had embraced religion on his pas- 
sage to California, and while in the mines, went 
alone, dayly, among the bushes to pray, and had, up 
to the day of death, conducted himself with Christian 
propriety. 



THE BROTHER WHO DEPARTED WITHOUT THE 
SACRAMENT. 

On the twenty-seventh of December, 1852, as I 
passed from ward to ward, in the City Hospital, trying 
to administer comfort to the sick strangers there con- 
gregated, I saw, in one corner of a small room, a 
man about forty years of age, whose countenance at 
once engaged my attention. He evidently was very 
sick, but his face exhibited an air of serenity and 
pleasantness very rare in such a place. By some sin- 
gular oversight, though I penned the facts I here 
relate, and have a vivid recollection of his face, I 
omitted to record his name. Thank the Lord that the 
Holy Spirit is not subject to such mistakes iii his 

25 



386 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

records in the Book of Life. The good brother in- 
formed me that he had been a merchant in Balti- 
more City, where his family was then residing, or 
perhaps a short distance out of the city. His lungs 
were affected, but he hoped it might be the pleasure 
of the Lord to spare him for his family, of whom he 
spoke with tenderest affection. He informed me 
that he was religious at home, and still enjoyed a 
sweet sense of God's pardoning mercy ; that religion 
made his soul happy when he had nothing else to 
comfort him. Said he, " On your next visit to the 
hospital I want you to administer the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper to me. I have not enjoyed the 
precious privilege of the sacrament for a long time." 
I told him I would do so with jxleasure, and should 
have made preparation for it at once, but he seemed 
to be in no immediate danger, and preferred waiting. 
The next day, as I was informed, owing to the break- 
ing of an abscess on his lungs, he suddenly died. He 
was not permitted again to "drink the fruit of the 
vine" in commemoration of his bleeding Saviour, but 
he went, we doubt not, to " drink it new with Christ 
in his Father's kingdom." 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 387 



THE DYING GERMAN IN A STABLE. 

During the autumn of 1853, the City Hospital, 
which could accommodate about three hundred pa- 
tients, was crowded to excess. One day, after visiting 
the wards of the sick and dying, and passing out into 
the back yard, a nurse said to me : " There is a very 
sick man in the stable," pointing to the door. I enter- 
ed, and saw the emaciated frame of a tall, intelligent 
looking young German. He told me he was a drug- 
gist, had been well brought up, and was doing a good 
business in his father-land, when he took a notion he 
would come to California. He had been at work in 
the mines, and got his leg broken. It had been too 
long neglected, and mortification had taken place, 
and he feared he never would again see his dear 
mother. I explained to him our guilty and exposed 
condition as sinners, and told him of a Friend, his 
Friend, one who loved him more than his mother ever 
did or could love him; that his mother in Germany 
knew not the condition of her son, and could not help 
him if she did ; that this Friend knew all about him, 
and that he was nigh at hand ; that he was born in a 
stable, and was present then, in his spiritual nature, 
his essential Divinity, in that mean stable, and was 
waiting to receive him as his child. 



388 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Never before did I see a poor soul drink in the 
simple Gospel with such avidity. His faith seemed 
to follow me closely step by step, till, by the mercy 
of the Lord, I led him to the cross. Gazing with 
wonder, he at once recognized the dying Jesus as the 
victim slain for him. His faith took right hold of the 
atonement and exulted in an almighty Saviour. His 
countenance shone like that of Moses, as he ex- 
claimed, " O, my Jesus, my Jesus, I do love thee !" 

As he continued to praise God lie, every now and 
then, turned his beaming eyes toward me, and said, 
" I am so glad you came in to see me. I did not 
know Jesus till you came in and told me about my 
precious Saviour. I would like to get well, that I 
might do something great for you." 

I assured him that I was repaid a thousandfold in 
seeing him happy in God. His strength failing, he 
said, " My poor pody, he is very sick, he will soon go 
down ; but my spirit, he is well now, he will soon go 
up to my blessed Jesus." A few hours sufficed to 
end the mortal strife, and his spirit went up to his 
blessed Jesus. 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 389 



THE DYING NORWEGIAN BOY. 

In the spring of 1853 there lay in the State Marine 
Hospital of this city, a Norwegian boy, nigh unto 
death. Peter Johnson, a Swede, who had been in- 
curably mangled in the mines, and who had experi- 
enced religion during his confinement in the hospital, 
occupied the next cot. Peter spoke very good En- 
glish, but the boy could only speak his mother tongue. 
A priest passing through the ward, requested the 
Swede to be his interpreter, while he should enlighten 
the dying boy at his side. 

I have always found the priests of the Romish 
Church very regular in their visits to the hospitals. 
The following conversation in substance was held be- 
tween the said priest and the Norwegian youth, 
through the interpreter : 

" My boy," said the priest, " you are dying. I am 
very sorry to tell you that if you die in your present 
state, you will certainly go to hell. JSTow, my dear 
boy, if you will confess your sins to me, and give 
your soul into my care, I will get a pardon for you, 
so that when you die you may escape the pains of 
hell and get to heaven." 

" I cannot trust you," replied the boy ; " my fader 
and mudder taught me to confess my sins to my Got 



390 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

in heaven. I believe my fader and mudder ; I don't 
believe yon. I cannot trust you, but I will trust in 
my Got in heaven." 

The priest immediately left, and the boy soon after 
died, " trusting in his Got in heaven." 

Parents, sow pure Gospel seed in the virgin soil of 
your children's hearts. They will need your teach- 
ings to guard and guide them when you are dead. 



JOSEPH M. GUSTIN. 

I believe Brother Gustin was from Pennsylvania. 
He passed very peacefully through the scene of 
starvation and suffering in the " Ex-City Hospital," 
described on page 66. He died about the middle of 
March, 1850. 

A short time before his final adieu to the gloomy 
hospital scene surrounding him, he told me that he 
had " enjoyed religion for three years." In conversa- 
tion with him, I quoted the seventh verse of the first 
chapter of the first Epistle of John : " But if we walk 
in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship 
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanseth us from all sin." He replied with 
much feeling, " O how sweet that is." 

Peace to the ashes of Brother Gustin. 



TKIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 391 



ISAAC EN SLOW. 

Brother Enslow was from New- York City, by 
trade a sail-maker. He was a tall, noble-looking 
man, and bad in him a very generous heart. I never 
heard any complaints from any source against the 
Christian character of Brother Enslow, during his 
sojourn of two or three years in California; but he 
was not known as a very active member of the 
Church, till our forty days' meeting in the Bethel, in 
the spring of 1852. At that meeting he took hold 
like a man thoroughly furnished, and did efficient 
service. About two months before his last illness, 
he professed to be wholly sanctified to the Lord, and 
his conduct corresponded with his profession to the 
last. About the fifth of August, 1852, he was taken 
sick with a fever. He was most peaceful and tri- 
umphant on his bed of death. He spoke with great 
affection of his wife and daughter at home, and he 
would be delighted again to see them ; but, said he, 
"Jesus is my Saviour and my King. He saves me 
now from all sin, and he has a right to rule. I most 
gladly submit to the decisions of his infinite wisdom. 
He doeth all things well. My soul is full of light 
and love." 

I bade him adieu to attend a camp-meeting a 



392 STEEET PREACHING IN" SAN FRANCISCO. 

couple of hundred miles north of this city, hoping to 
find him convalescing on my return, but I saw his 
face no more. While I was laboring at the camp- 
meeting he passed from labor to reward. His dust 
slumbers in the " Yerba Buena Cemetery," to await 
the resurrection summons of Him in whom he trust- 
ed. His death occurred about the fifteenth of 
August, 1852. 



JUDSON FORBES. 

On the second day of June, 1856, I was called to 
the United States Marine Hospital to see a dying 
man, who had requested an interview with me. 
Kneeling by his side, I asked, " Do you know me ?" 

"Yes, Father Taylor." 

" Well, my dear friend, what can I do for you ?" 

" O, I want to know what I must do to be saved. 
I am a great sinner. I know not what I shall do." 

"Have you long felt yourself to be a great 
sinner ?" 

" Ever since I left home, a mere boy, and went to 
sea, my mother's prayers have been ringing in my 
ears. She used to pray with me every night. I 
have often thought what a dreadful thing it is to be 
a sinner, after having the instructions of such a 



TRIUMPHANT DEATH SCENES. 393 

mother. I have often desired to have religion, but 
at sea I had poor opportunities, and did not know 
how to obtain it. For some months past I have 
been in great distress of mind, but I have had no one 
to teach me the way. I have been trying to pray, 
but I get worse and worse. For several days past I 
have felt such a load of sin that it seems sometimes 
that my heart would burst." 

" Do you think," said I, " that you hate your sins, 
not only on account of their consequences to you, 
but because they were perpetrated against a wise 
and merciful God." 

" Yes," he replied, " and I give up all to him." 

"Even if you knew you would get well," contin- 
ued I, "you would consecrate your heart and life 
wholly to him, and living or dying, be the Lord's 
without reserve ?" 

" Yes," said he, " I only desire to live that I may 
serve him." 

" Do you believe that Jesus Christ died to redeem 
you from sin?" 

"I do." 

"Do you believe that God the Father accepts the 
price which Jesus paid for you?" 

"I do." 

" You believe then, though guilty, bankrupt, and 
condemned, that on Christ's account you may to-day 
obtain the pardon of all your sins ?" 



394 STREET PREACHING IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

"Yes, I do." 

" Are you not glad that you have such an almighty 
and sympathizing Saviour on whom you may cast all 
your sins and sorrows?" 

" I am glad." 

" You are trusting in him now, are you not ?" 

"Yes;" and continued, «.OI O! O!" the tears 
streaming down his sunken cheeks, " I never felt so 
before. I feel such a load taken off my heart. I feel 
that I could fly away to the arms of my blessed Jesus. 
I never before had any idea of the ability and will- 
ingness of Jesus to save me. I feel that he hath 
saved me. He hath cleaned me through and through. 
I hope to see my God in heaven before to-morrow 
morning." 

He, however, survived two days longer, and sweet- 
ly fell asleep, trusting in an almighty Saviour. Such 
was the closing scene of Judson Forbes, from Wis- 
consin, I believe he told me ; aged twenty-four years. 



THE END, 



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The perusal of this volume cannot fail to kindle anew the flagging zeal of the suc- 
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